In this article, we will explore the impact of Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-08-18/Technology report on today's society. Since its emergence, Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-08-18/Technology report has captured the attention of people around the world, generating passionate and emotional discussions. Over the years, Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-08-18/Technology report has evolved and adapted to changes in society, influencing different aspects of daily life. Through this analysis, we will examine the role Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-08-18/Technology report has played in culture, politics, economics, and other areas, as well as its influence on the way people perceive the world around them. With a critical and reflective look, we will seek to better understand the impact that Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-08-18/Technology report has had and continues to have on our society.
User script report (January–July 2016, part 2): A review of numerous useful Wikipedia customizations
This "User scripts" report (along with part 1) covers scripts newly listed at Wikipedia:User scripts, January 1 – July 31, 2016. Text may be adapted from the respective listings there; see the page's history for attribution.
As mentioned in the previous Signpost "Technology report", registered users can install user scripts to significantly customise their Wikipedia experience, beyond the options already provided at Special:Preferences. This report concludes the prior report's list of scripts published in 2016, through the end of July. See Wikipedia:User scripts for more scripts and further information, including instructions. In the Installation code section below, you will find the code needed to install each script.
Reading
"FloatingTOC" places a duplicate Table of Contents in the bottom corner of the screen
Subdue Links (source) by User:Fred Gandt – Adds a button to the navigation menu (near the "Read" tab) to make content hyperlink text colouration turn-off-and-on-able. Doesn't effect UIlinks. Created for and only tested with the Vector skin.
Toggle VF (source) by User:P999 – Creates a voice-friendly PDF version of any Wikipedia article that can be read aloud by text-to-speech applications such as Voice Dream, TextAloud, etc.
Custom GeoHack replacement (source) by User:Evad37 – Use your own custom page with only links you choose, and with whatever formatting you want, instead of the regular GeoHack.
Editing
"CopySectionLink" makes it easy to grab a link to a page section
copySectionLink (source) by User:Bility – Displays a hidden pilcrow (¶) after editable section titles. When you mouse-over the section heading, the pilcrow will appear as a link to that section. This can then be used to more easily get copy/pasteable links in the format of Page#Section.
Signing (source) by Perhelion – Automatically underwrites your posts (and some more gimmicks)
ToDoLister (source) by User:Evad37 – Links to view or add a page to a personal todo list, and links on that todo list to easily remove items (no need to open the edit window). There are also various options you can set to customise your experience.
Confirm Logout (source) by User:Fred Gandt – Interrupts logout procedure (via personal navigation link) with a confirmation dialog (except on user preferences pages where user scripts aren't loaded). Created for and only tested with the Vector skin.
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Thespaceface/MetricFirst.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Fred_Gandt/subdueLinks.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:P999/Toggle VF.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Ugog Nizdast/FloatingTOC.js}}
^Create your custom GeoHack page here; then copy the following code, click here, and paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Evad37/Custom GeoHack replacement.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Ugog Nizdast/displayNumberOfTags.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Bility/copySectionLink.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste:
mw.loader.load('//meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Perhelion/signing.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:APerson/sync-template-sandbox.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Music1201/MyCSD.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Evad37/WikidataWatchlistLabels.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Evad37/ToDoLister.js}}
^Copy the following code, click here, then paste: {{subst:iusc|1=User:Fred_Gandt/confirmLogout.js}}
In brief
New gadgets
Scripts which have been widely tested may be made into gadgets, which registered users can easily enable or disable through Special:Preferences § Gadgets. Two new gadgets have recently been added to English Wikipedia: "Display links to disambiguation pages in orange" (DisambiguationLinks) and "Strike out usernames that have been blocked" (markblocked).
BU RoBOT (task 25) – Categorizes stub articles in more detailed stub categories based on existing categorization
Yobot (task 26) – Fixes section header naming for References, External links, and See also
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Problems
Last week Tech News announced you will get a notification when you mention yourself the same way as if someone else had mentioned you. This change caused some problems, and has been reverted; it will be implemented at a later date.
Creating and editing links to sections on other pages on the wiki now works again in the VisualEditor.
For some users, cross-wiki notifications haven't been working properly. The count has been wrong when only cross-wiki notifications were present. The cross-wiki bundle has been showing only the names of wikis and not the actual notifications. This will be fixed soon.
Changes this week
The login session when you choose "Keep me logged in" will now last a year. Previously it was 30 days. This will happen on August 16.
Some abuse filters will have to be updated during the week, as part of a bug fix.
In compact language links, two new kinds of languages will be shown in the shorter language list: Languages that are used in the article's text, and languages where the article has a badge like "featured article" or "good article".
The visual editor will be available by default for logged-out editors on Wikipedias that use the Arabic script. It is already default for logged-in editors.
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from August 16. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from August 17. It will be on all wikis from August 18 (calendar).
Future changes
Starting the week of August 22 the number of daily software development windows will be increased to three. They will be at 13:00, 18:00, and 23:00 UTC. This is to have more times when software of the wikis can be updated and make it easier for developers in different parts of the world.
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