Author: arnomane
Description:
Some time ago the I18n system of MediaWiki worked in multilanguage wikis like Wikimedia Commons the following way:
- Look if there is a localised English message at the corresponding MediaWiki namespace page (directly in SQL
database, not transcluded from I18n-file) regardless of the user language setting.
- If the english message string is existing in the MediaWiki namespace don't use the transcluded I18n-file for that
message in any language but only the corresponding /<ISO-CODE> sub page if it is directly existing.
- If that page is not existing fall back to the English message
- If neither the english message nor the translated message exists in the MediaWiki namespace use the transcluded
string from the I18n file.
Since some months MediaWiki works the following way:
- If the specific localised message is not existing in MediaWiki namespace take the transcluded message from the
I18n-file.
This is one of the worst UI changes we just realised by random in Commons, seriously. We did heavily rely on the
old behavior. If a message wasn't existing in the database, the user got the english one. Fine. The changes on
important UI messages were easy to follow and were an acceptable amount of work. We didn't need to fear that people
did get any totally useless UI messages if they did choose a less common language none of us admins was able to
speak.
Until we realised the change that http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload did show just useless info and
nothing what is absolutely crucial to remind during upload if you did have a less common language setting it took
several months (the corresponding default message MediaWiki:Uploadtext/<ISO-code> from I18n-files is totally
useless in Commons). Within that period many people did upload a lot of copyvios simply because they were not able
knowing it better. These are the nightmares of Commons admins: People flaming at them why they weren't informed
that fair use and such is not allowed and a Commons admin that somehow need to come to the idea that they really
weren't properly informed and just don't ly.
The result of that severe bug was this huge overwrite-quick-and-dirty-work-around for this single upload message
only:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?offset=&limit=50&target=Arnomane&title=Special%3AContributions&namespace=8
(all messages with the "in order to supress a inadequate default mediawiki message" change comment).
There are much more important MediaWiki messages existing that would need such a time consuming and painfull hack
ASAP.
So please fix that bug inmediatly. I wouldn't have been so bold and would have switched priority and severity to
the maximum if this wouldn't be the case.
The most elegant solution would be as follows:
- If the default language message is more current (timestamp) then a translation take the default language message
(usually english in multilanguage wikis). I18n-file messages are allays the oldest ones.
If this elegant solution isn't doable easily or within the next few days please please consider using the old
behaviour in the meantime.
Version: unspecified
Severity: major