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)
 * You are right. That was a very good resource, too bad it's gone! Tenbergen (talk) 23:07, 4 February 2020 (UTC)


 * It's still up, it's just sometimes slow, or the server is down. I'm working on moving it to a new server (should have been done a long time ago, but that's a different story). Yaron Koren (talk) 04:04, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Community Insights Survey
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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)

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Sincerely, RMaung (WMF) 19:13, 20 September 2019 (UTC)

Reminder: Community Insights Survey
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Sincerely, RMaung (WMF) 17:03, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Referata

 * Hi, yaron koren, referata.com is error, can you help me?--Msnhinet8 (talk) 11:36, 13 December 2019 (UTC)

No errors (apart from the hacking spree months ago) as far as I'm aware. Just that the site's been super slow since said incident (and I've wanted to remind Koren on that hiccup for weeks now). Let's wait on, and see if he can speed things up after. --Slgrandson (talk) 03:07, 18 December 2019 (UTC)


 * I'm aware of the extreme slowness... I'll try to improve it in the new year. Yaron Koren (talk) 21:38, 18 December 2019 (UTC)


 * ok, thanks.--Msnhinet8 (talk) 06:06, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

Delete Delicious-related Referata sites
They are all listed here: pastebin.com/nvGvpnUg They contain several pieces of personal info about me that I don't want exposed, and they are shrines to a banned vandal/skiddie that I don't think will ever return. --KMF

Hello
Hi Yaron, I'm a fan of Between the Brackets and a user of Cargo and Page Forms! I love your amazing work! I wanted to ask you if it's possible to show me where can I get the Working with Mediawiki book, as the website seems offline. Thank you! MavropaliasG (talk) 15:33, 23 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Great! Is it offline for you now? It's loading fine for me. Yaron Koren (talk) 03:29, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for the message! It's funny, no matter how many times I tried accessing http://workingwithmediawiki.com/ from my laptop (wifi) or phone (mobile internet) it always gives me a "This site can’t be reachedworkingwithmediawiki.com’s server IP address could not be found. DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN", however through tor and a Luxembourg exit node it works! I live in Perth, Australia, so maybe a server is misconfigured or blocked somewhere! Anyway thanks again Yaron, keep up the amazing work! MavropaliasG (talk) 14:32, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Question
How is your user page not protected? 2A02:C7F:861D:6A00:FCB8:BEF3:C64B:2F4 16:49, 27 June 2020 (UTC)

A beer for you!

 * Thank you! I'm glad you got it working. It seems like you did most of the work on this one, but if you want to donate, these people are doing important work, I think. Yaron Koren (talk) 20:08, 19 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Done. Thanks again! ~z929669 Ixian_Insignia_SM.png Talk 20:59, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Q on PF discussion
Hi Yaron, I responded back to your last question. My guess is that you aren't looking back at it, so just letting you know. Thanks ~z929669 Talk 17:36, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Responded to question
I replied with a use case(s). Basically, if we could have "autocompletion on concept" for #forminput, that would resolve a lot. My generic scenario using a common motif: Imagine a wiki that catalogs all cities in the world. It parses countries into country namespaces. Having a #forminput call for all wiki editors to be able to create city pages and using Category:Cities for autocompletion and namspace selector=[ country list ] is nice, but then they can select a country namespace and will see ALL country prefixes matching the typed string in the autocomplete. Thus, they have the ability to choose France:Paris when "UnitedStates" is the chosen namespace (there is a Paris Texas in the US). This would result in creation of a NEW page at UnitedStates:France:Paris rather than opening UnitedStates:Paris for edit or creating as new.

The only workaround is to categorize city pages according to namespace, which basically obviates the concept of 'Concepts'. Either way, for this to work, one would need to create a #forminput for each country, but I don't want to begin building out a bunch of needless categories along with a unique #forminput call for each.~z929669 Talk 03:59, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

What happened to referata.com ?
What happened to referata.com ? RobiH (talk) 15:48, 6 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Would like to know as well :) --Dennis07; (☎ / √) 21:44, 4 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Me too ! My wiki disappeared :( --SoniaDesk (talk) 13:11, 19 March 2021 (UTC)


 * I am very sorry for the (I think) months-long downtime. It was due to a DNS issue that took me way too long to address. I believe the site is fully back up now. Yaron Koren (talk) 13:18, 25 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Hello Yaron. I noticed Referatas seem to have been down for a long while (around some months maybe). I would like to know if the issue is going to be solved, or at least if there are any means to get a backup of their content. Thank you beforehand and regards. --Maikel93 (talk) 13:49, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

[WMF Board of Trustees - Call for feedback: Community Board seats] Meetings with MediaWiki and Wikitech communities
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is organizing a call for feedback about community selection processes between February 1 and March 14. While the Wikimedia Foundation and the movement have grown about five times in the past ten years, the Board’s structure and processes have remained basically the same. As the Board is designed today, we have a problem of capacity, performance, and lack of representation of the movement’s diversity. Our current processes to select individual volunteer and affiliate seats have some limitations. Direct elections tend to favor candidates from the leading language communities, regardless of how relevant their skills and experience might be in serving as a Board member, or contributing to the ability of the Board to perform its specific responsibilities. It is also a fact that the current processes have favored volunteers from North America and Western Europe. In the upcoming months, we need to renew three community seats and appoint three more community members in the new seats. This call for feedback is to see what processes can we all collaboratively design to promote and choose candidates that represent our movement and are prepared with the experience, skills, and insight to perform as trustees?

In this regard, two rounds of feedback meetings are being hosted to collect feedback from the technical communities in Wikimedia. Two rounds are being hosted with the same agenda, to accomodate people from various time zones across the globe. We will be discussing ideas proposed by the Board and the community to address the above mentioned problems. Please sign-up according to whatever is most comfortable to you. You are welcome to participate in both as well!


 * Round 1 - Feb 25, 4:00 pm UTC
 * Round 2 - Mar 4, 4:00 am UTC
 * Sign-up and meeting details: Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees/Call for feedback: Community Board seats/Conversations/MediaWiki and Wikitech

Also, please share this with other volunteers who might be interested in this. Let me know if you have any questions. KCVelaga (WMF), 14:38, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

"per discussion"
Hey Yaron Koren, could you link to where the discussion happened concerning blanking the talk pages of archived extensions? I don't remember it coming up on the village pump or support desk, and there isn't anything on your or Kghbln's talk page. Thanks! 「 ディノ 奴 千？！ 」☎ Dinoguy1000 00:07, 20 November 2021 (UTC)


 * You can see the discussion here. But if you disagree with me and think that archived extensions' talk pages should be blanked, I'm happy to talk about it more. Yaron Koren (talk) 03:53, 22 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Nah, I was just curious; I haven't thought about this enough to have a strong opinion. Though I will say that even if talk pages aren't blanked, some consideration should be given to the actual contents, to see if anything specific should be blanked (e.g. I'd argue that there's no reason to hang on to old copies of extension code on talk pages). 「 ディノ 奴 千？！ 」☎ Dinoguy1000 13:05, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

How we will see unregistered users
Hi!

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Instead of the IP we will show a masked identity. You as an admin will still be able to access the IP. There will also be a new user right for those who need to see the full IPs of unregistered users to fight vandalism, harassment and spam without being admins. Patrollers will also see part of the IP even without this user right. We are also working on better tools to help.

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We have two suggested ways this identity could work. We would appreciate your feedback on which way you think would work best for you and your wiki, now and in the future. You can let us know on the talk page. You can write in your language. The suggestions were posted in October and we will decide after 17 January.

Thank you. /Johan (WMF)

18:17, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Annotation chat sometime?
What's your current thinking about how best to integrate annotation into MW? Would be nice to list the open challenges for deeper hypothesis integration (e.g.: having wiki-style world-editable annotes; ranking/prioritization or having a cutoff for 'min popularity to show up')? Are there any interesting implementations (or uses of your hypothesis extension) that you've seen? Sj (talk) 18:37, 17 June 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi - I didn't know how you knew about my Hypothesis extension, so I looked and was very surprised to see that the page Extension:Hypothesis exists. I didn't create that page; it's based on this unreleased extension, which I created for Genesys in 2018. I don't know if it still works, and actually I don't recall if it worked before. It was not used by Genesys, for some reason, so as far as I know no one has ever used this extension. Maybe the extension page should be deleted.


 * That said, I do have a lot of interest in having good annotation functionality for MediaWiki - I personally think it's one of the big missing features for MediaWiki. I looked a fair amount into annotation before creating the Hypothesis extension: I first looked into the Open Knowledge Foundation's Annotator, maybe by reviving the Annotator extension, although Annotator (the JS library) was already a dead project by that point. I also looked into creating a new custom, bare-bones annotation tool. I don't remember now why I hesitated about using Hypothesis, though I recall I somehow thought that it didn't exactly match the requirements, at least for private wikis. Maybe it was because the Python-based backend part of it (AKA "h") seemed too hard to install. Or maybe using Hypothesis always requires using the central Hypothesis service? I don't remember.


 * Your questions about "minimum popularity" and so on sound (not surprisingly) geared for massive-scale wikis like the Wikimedia sites, whereas I'm more focused on smaller "enterprise" wikis, where the functionality could be more like that of, say, Google Docs. (No editing or voting on other people's comments.) That said, I'm sure that a tool that worked well for a Wikimedia wiki would work well for any wiki.


 * So basically, there's not much I can help with, though I share your enthusiasm about annotation. Between your concerns about Hypothesis and mine, it does sound to me like a fully new solution is the new way to go, whether it's entirely MediaWiki-centered or uses an ostensibly independent JS library, in the manner of OOUI or Codex. I could help provide development resources, as they say, for such a project - both my time and others' - though it would have to be for money. Yaron Koren (talk) 13:47, 20 June 2022 (UTC)