Move
out of core to an Extension:Disambiguations (or similar name).
This is purely Wikipedia/Wikimedia stuff, so it doesn't make a sense to have it in core.
Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | None | T31145 Core features that shouldn't be in core (tracking) | |||
| Resolved | kaldari | T8754 Distinguish disambiguation pages from normal articles cheaply in database | |||
| Resolved | kaldari | T37981 Move Special:Disambiguations and relevant messages out of core to an extension |
This should easy enough to do. You may need to request the creation of a Git repo from Chad before this can be done... not sure. In any case, I'm marking this with the "easy" keyword.
Note: all wikis creating an "encyclopedia of something" use this feature, and a Google search seems to find dozens millions results even outside wiki[pm]edia.org and wikia.com, so of course this extension should be bundled in the main release and release notes should have some very visible warning about it.
(In reply to comment #2)
Note: all wikis creating an "encyclopedia of something" use this feature,
and a Google search seems to find dozens millions results even outside
wiki[pm]edia.org and wikia.com, so of course this extension should be bundled
in the main release and release notes should have some very visible warning
about it.
This note feels like bullshit.
Do you have any evidence to support the claim that all encyclopedia-related wikis use this feature? (Links to specific non-Wikimedia wikis would be very helpful.)
And which Google search produced millions of results? I looked through maybe twenty or thirty results from https://www.google.com/search?q=%22MediaWiki:Disambiguationspage%22+-wikipedia and almost all of them were un-customized (the default MediaWiki message) containing only "Template:disambig".
The removal of this feature from MediaWiki core should be noted in the release notes, to be sure, but I see absolutely no evidence currently that this feature is widely used to the point that it should be bundled with MediaWiki, as you suggest.
(In reply to comment #3)
And which Google search produced millions of results? I looked through maybe
twenty or thirty results from
<https://www.google.com/search?q=%22MediaWiki:Disambiguationspage%22+-
wikipedia>
and almost all of them were un-customized (the default MediaWiki message)
containing only "Template:disambig".The removal of this feature from MediaWiki core should be noted in the
release
notes, to be sure, but I see absolutely no evidence currently that this
feature
is widely used to the point that it should be bundled with MediaWiki, as you
suggest.
What feature are you talking about? I'm very confused.
I was thinking of queries like this: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=disambiguation+wiki+-site%3Awikia.com+-site%3Awikipedia.org
I'm not able to find any *not* using the feature, from a quick search.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Special:Disambiguations
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Special:Disambiguations
http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Special:Disambiguations
http://marvel.com/universe/Special:Disambiguations
(In reply to comment #4)
What feature are you talking about? I'm very confused.
I was thinking of queries like this:
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=disambiguation+wiki+-site%3Awikia.com+-
site%3Awikipedia.org
I'm not able to find any *not* using the feature, from a quick search.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Special:Disambiguations
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Special:Disambiguations
http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Special:Disambiguations
http://marvel.com/universe/Special:Disambiguations
You're first limiting to wikis using the word "disambiguation" and then seeing if they use a disambiguation-related feature. That's... flawed.
I don't think either of our search queries are sampling MediaWiki usage properly. I think s23 or someone used to have some MediaWiki usage stats, but I doubt anyone has useful stats for this purpose. :-/
(In reply to comment #5)
You're first limiting to wikis using the word "disambiguation" and then
seeing
if they use a disambiguation-related feature. That's... flawed.
If you're right, we have about 25 million pages with this "flaw" according to Google.
taste1at wrote:
@Ryan: the new extension looks really good.
I just have one concern: the naming of the special page.
I think, a self-explanatory name would be better: Special:LinksToDisambiguationPages or Special:DisambiguationPageLinks. Such names seam to be okey, as we have also Special:WhatLinksHere in camel case.
Moreover, it would be nice if also Special:Disambiguations could be an alias, so no links would be broken...
Changed it to Special:DisambiguationPageLinks
We can't alias it to Special:Disambiguations until that page is actually removed from core. I haven't removed it from core yet because I want to make sure everyone is happy with the new Special page before we get rid of the old one. So there will be a brief period during which both special pages will be available.
It has been suggested at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Suggestions_for_extensions_to_be_integrated#Extension:Disambiguator that the new Disambiguator extension be integrated into core. Obviously we can't just keep moving it back and forth. Personally, I don't really care whether it's in core or an extension (since I've written both versions now), but we should establish some consensus. Should I take the issue to wikitech-l?
Sorry for the run-around.
(In reply to comment #10)
Should I take the issue to wikitech-l?
Yeah, probably. There are three options, I guess:
Does it make sense for a wiki engine to have disambiguation capability by default? I don't think so. It feels like a specialized feature; specialized features are what extensions were made for.
That said, is it worth the "code purity" to remove this feature from core, likely causing disruption for sysadmins during their next MediaWiki upgrade? I'm not sure.
(In reply to comment #10)
Should I take the issue to wikitech-l?
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2013-January/065707.html
taste1at wrote:
That said, is it worth the "code purity" to remove this feature from core,
likely causing disruption for sysadmins during their next MediaWiki upgrade?
The only disruption is the fact that one special page (which is currently not even working properly on Wikimedia wikis) will disappear if the extension is not installed.
And: the replacement of the old system (based on MediaWiki:Disambiguationspage) by the new system (based on the DISAMIG MagicWord) causes much more disruption and extra-work for the site admins.
In the long run, it should be less work, especially since they won't have to keep track of template redirects.
taste1at wrote:
@Ryan: Sorry for not making my point clear. I think the new way of dealing with disambiguation pages is much better than the old one.
For those who do not read the UPGRADE notes, the special page indicating the disambiguation page links will not work anymore no matter if the feature is split into an extension or not. (I dont think you intend to write a maintenance script that adds the DISAMBIG MagicWord to all templates linked in MediaWiki:Disambiguationspage.) This was the point.
By the way, I have one more point: why do you use a pagepros MagicWord and not the category system. Typically one wants
A) some kind of a list of all disambiguation pages
B) a list of pages liking to a disambiguation page.
B is done using a special page, see your extension. But what's with A? For this purpose, most wikis use the category system.
This still causes some doubeling: having a category for A and a page property for B.
So, I think somehow
The main reason for using a page property rather than a category is that categories aren't universal across wikis. So for example, we could assign all en.wiki disambiguation pages to "Category:Disambiguation pages" and query for that category, but we would have to use a different query for each wiki. With a page property, all disambiguation pages on all wikis can be queried for in the exact same way (which is what mobile needs). Also note that the magic word is localizable, but still sets the same page property.
Once the magic word is in use, creating a special page to list all disambiguation pages would be trivial, certainly much easier than listing all pages that link to disambiguation pages. As far as I know, no one has ever asked for that, but if someone were to file a bug for it, I would be happy to create such a special page.
(In reply to comment #16)
Once the magic word is in use, creating a special page to list all
disambiguation pages would be trivial, certainly much easier than listing all
pages that link to disambiguation pages. As far as I know, no one has ever
asked for that, but if someone were to file a bug for it, I would be happy to
create such a special page.
Bug 44040.
Change 74096 had a related patch set uploaded by Kaldari:
Removing all disambiguation code from core
Change 74103 had a related patch set uploaded by Kaldari:
Removing dependancy on SpecialDisambiguations since it's being axed.
Change 74103 merged by jenkins-bot:
Removing dependancy on SpecialDisambiguations since it's being axed.