This should definitely have a discussion

Technically mediawiki.org doesn't really need community consensus for common sense changes, There is a lot of precedents for this.

But if this was to be changed, Where/what else does it effect?

If at all that would be probably suited for https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Current_issues ? Still unclear which problem this would solve though

I'm not an expert, but I agree with @Peachey88; this seems both useful and uncontroversial, so I doubt a discussion is necessary. For example, mw:Project:About consistently refers to the site as MediaWiki.org.

If this is changed, it would be good to also change the name in the WikimediaMessages extension (see gerrit 748381 for an example of a name change there). My team relies on that data for the site names we use in various data tools like the wiki comparison tool, and I was just thinking that it should use "MediaWiki.org" instead of "MediaWiki", so that we can clearly distinguish between the site and the software.

Change 788825 had a related patch set uploaded (by Stang; author: Stang):

[operations/mediawiki-config@master] mediawikiwiki: Change wgSitename from "MediaWiki" to "MediaWiki.org"

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/788825

In T299458#7901555, @Stang wrote:

Just wondering if a discussion already started, or I could start one.

I'm not aware of one; you writing a patch is the first I'd heard of this idea.

This is a breaking change killing any

{{#switch: {{SITENAME}}
  |Wikipedia=encyclopedia
  |Wiktionary=dictionary
  |MediaWiki=development coordination
}}

There is also {{SERVERNAME}} which yields www.mediawiki.org right now. Next one will complain that it is confusing the new SITENAME is a domain name as well.

If something has been introduced two decades ago there are very very strong reasons required to change a constant.

Please note that there is also wgSiteName in the JavaScript environment, as by mw.config.get("wgSiteName").

Their values are used to be identical with the corresponding {{SITENAME}} onwiki.

• What is this proposal about that value?
• Is it intended to change it in the same way, and break all gadgets relying on the constant?
• Is it planned to have a different constant only for this wiki in JavaScript and Wikitext?

BTW, is there any PHP usage of that constant?

Oh, sorry, I forgot: In Lua there is mw.site.siteName – how do I read this proposal on that issue? And the broken Lua modules relying on that constant? Or using a different identifier than for parser function?

In T299458#7942635, @PerfektesChaos wrote:

This is a breaking change killing any

{{#switch: {{SITENAME}}
  |Wikipedia=encyclopedia
  |Wiktionary=dictionary
  |MediaWiki=development coordination
}}

Can you give any example where that switch is used in such a fashion?

No need to make a global search on 982 WNF wikis.

The purpose of these variables is typically that they are used in programming rather than to be presented directly to the reader. To distinguish identifiers it is not required that someone regards one ID code nicer than another.

Anybody who is providing a global template would be affected. They might distinguish between central wikis (Commons, Meta, MediaWiki) in one project language against all others with language siblings.

There has been no reason given why a personal taste for an ID code is better than the constant over two decades and why that one is no longer feasible.

In T299458#7943019, @PerfektesChaos wrote:

The purpose of these variables is typically that they are used in programming rather than to be presented directly to the reader. To distinguish identifiers it is not required that someone regards one ID code nicer than another.

I don't see a valid reason to use {{SITENAME}} instead of {{SERVERNAME}} for programmatic comparisons. If that's supposed to be used on "global templates", that would be problematic already, since the same project on different languages has different names. If such code exists anywhere, it's probably broken already.

I did not make any search, but e.g. this one came to my mind. There is nothing about to be called as it's probably broken already but a usual implementation, especially within a “global template” which is distributed automatically on all depependant wikis.

I am not supposed to provide any search results. Those who want to change a constant are in charge to proof that this will not break any coding, or how many implementations are to be updated by whom.

I do regard it as pointless to change a constant existing for two decades just to satisfy personal taste of some people, replacing with a confusing domain name which is at least at a similar level of irritation.

Furthermore, the proposal does not mention the expectations on wgSiteName nor mw.site.siteName – I would expect that consequences of changing a constant are deeper and better reflected. Are all those codes to be changed for private preference as well? Or should they begin to use different values, if not inherited anyway?

Change 788825 abandoned by Stang:

[operations/mediawiki-config@master] mediawikiwiki: Change wgSitename from "MediaWiki" to "MediaWiki.org"

Reason:

see task

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/788825