Contents

User talk:SHB

This is the talk page of SHB

General

  • If you need help with anything at all, please leave a message right here on this talk page.
  • If there's something you need to discuss in private, email me in strictest confidence. Need to be autoconfirmed though, if not go and message me on a random WMF project that no one would ever be thinking of going to if you're not autoconfirmed (list of wikis here).
  • Feeling bored and want to have a chat, I'm more than happy to do so.
  • If you're having difficulty in accessing this talk page, go to b:User talk:SHB or m:User talk:SHB. I check both talk pages frequently and get notifications on both. However, do not go to my English Wikipedia talk page. The English Wikipedia is not the centre of all WMF projects.
  • This page is also protected often due to the result of x-wiki vandals and long-term abusers. If that's the case, then go to my Meta-Wiki talk page.
  • The reply tool may not work on this page.
  • Rollbacks used (for personal reference)
  • I'm open to technical questions here, but at the same time, you may also get a better response at the travellers' pub.
  • Inquiries about my global sysop/steward actions should preferably go on my Meta-Wiki talk page.

Archives

Main archives (current archive)

Other archives (mostly defunct nowadays)

  • Pub archive – all discussions swept from the pub
  • Barncompass archive – all barncompasses here (although I do have another copy of this on my userpage)

Docent

  • If you're here to ask me a docent question, then this is the place. Expect a reply within 1–7 days, unless you see a box saying that I'm travelling.
  • If this page is protected, then follow the same instructions for anons (or IP users) and go to my IP talk page or my Meta talk page.

Click here to message me – I will reply as soon as I can. All replies will be made directly underneath your message on this page. Do be aware though, that I do not use talkback. I do on the other hand, use pings as I've more or less given up on watchlists, but may not always ping you (usually, if the message has gone unanswered for about more than 12-18 hours, then I'd usually give a ping).

Threads on this page are archived every 14 days of inactivity, but mass mail messages may get archived earlier, while active threads might get archived later than 14 days of inactivity, but how this page is archived isn't consistent merely because a bot couldn't do its job.


Table of contents


Tech News: 2026-43

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Latest comment: 11 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Updates for editors

  • To measure the impact of incorporating some community-requested features on logged-out reader retention, a test for Image Carousel will be pushed to logged-out readers. With the Image Carousel feature, readers browse community-uploaded images, selected by editors as relevant to specific articles. The test starts on November 20.
  • An experimental notice will be pushed to 0.5% of logged-out mobile readers who come to English Wikipedia from Google, asking them to add Wikipedia as a Google Preferred Source. The test is to see if this notice increases reader retention and encourages people who use Google Search to visit Wikipedia more often. It will run from October 15–29 and will be assessed for its impact on retention and referrals.
  • Recurrent item View all 26 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, an issue where Quarry returned an “Access denied” error when users tried to run SQL queries, preventing queries from running normally, has now been fixed. [1]

Updates for technical contributors

  • Advanced item Due to a long-standing bug, applications that use the OAuth 2 client credentials flow to act on their owners’ behalf are treated as if they are logged out. This will be fixed for new applications registered on or after Monday, October 19. Some affected applications need to re-register. [2]
  • Recurrent item Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

Meetings and events

  • A proposal to hold the Wikimedia Hackathon every three years, with regional hackathons in between, has been shared. It explores making the event more accessible to technical communities in different regions. Share your feedback on the proposal’s talk page before November 6.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 14:38, 19 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Inquiring about how it operates

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Latest comment: 8 days ago17 comments6 people in discussion

Hello! I’m an administrator on Vietnamese Wikivoyage, and I’d like to learn more about how your community operates so that we can develop our own Wikivoyage project.

I’d like to ask for your advice on how to attract more readers and recruit more editors. It seems that articles on Vietnamese Wikivoyage are not being indexed by Google, which makes it very difficult for us to grow.

I would really appreciate any advice, experience, or suggestions you could share with me. Thank you! Làm Việc Thiện (talk) 23:51, 20 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

@Làm Việc Thiện: Unfortunately, Wikivoyage articles have long suffered from SEO as a consequence of the fork 14 years ago. It's a lot less of an issue now, but it still very much does hurt our rankings (the improvements in the last ~2 years have mainly come from Wikitravel falling off the face of the Earth). While I know viwikivoyage was technically not forked, I'd assume it being under the domain "wikivoyage.org" has still hurt the wiki.
That said, best ways to improve it are to follow some of the tips at Wikivoyage:Search engine optimization. Namely, include internal links and try to add a link to the Wikivoyage article on viwiki where possible. Also avoid copying text from Wikipedia; it's better to use that info and then summarise it from scratch. Perhaps @WhatamIdoing: or @DaGizza: may know more or know anyone who might be able to help you (and viwikivoyage) more, since my knowledge of SEO is pretty superficial. Best, //shb (t • c) 01:34, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@WhatamIdoing @DaGizza Thank you for sharing your advice on how things work. I’d also like to ask the other two of you to learn more about how things work. Làm Việc Thiện (talk) 02:20, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
In terms of finding contributors, I suggest partnering with m:Vietnam Wikimedians User Group and recruiting from the Vietnamese Wikipedia. m:Wikipedia Asian Month 2026 is another opportunity to remind editors that Wikivoyage exists and welcomes them. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:21, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
FYI @Làm Việc Thiện, wrt WhatamIdoing's point about WAM: every year we host an annual edit-a-thon that roughly aligns with Wikivoyage's birthday in January (usually Asia-themed, but this year we're making it global). Historically, the only other wikis that have participated were eswikivoyage and zhwikivoyage, but this could also be a great opportunity for viwikivoyage to join. //shb (t • c) 02:24, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@Làm Việc Thiện: I checked the main page of Vietnamese Wikivoyage, clicked on a few links and then copied and pasted those titles into Google. I noticed that Google did pick up on those articles. For example Du lịch vào Giáng Sinh và năm mới. I agree with all of the advice already stated above. In addition you can share the high-quality articles online but outside of the WMF space too, such as travel forums, social media and so on. The more links you have, the more readers you get and the more editors you will eventually get. It becomes a cycle of positivity and growth. Gizza (roam) 03:14, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@SHB@DaGizza@WhatamIdoing Thank you everyone Làm Việc Thiện (talk) 04:19, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
One more thing to LVT: if there's anything you guys on viwikivoyage need help on, please don't hesitate to reach out on the Wikivoyage:Travellers' pub. Most people here are usually willing to help to the best of their ability, and there is usually someone who's familiar with what you may need on this site. All the best. :) //shb (t • c) 04:46, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@Làm Việc Thiện: I also write for zhwikivoyage and have taught others to edit English Wikivoyage. For zh, it has the same issue as vi (not many pages, not enough contents, small contributor base and rarely shows up on search engine). My advice is to start off by creating high-level pages like countries and capitals. Get rid of the red links. Then put some headers into those pages if you struggle to fill them with contents. When I teach others on editing Wikivoyage, it's much lower barrier to add in contents to an existing page than creating proper page structure and then add contents. The headers prompt newcomers what information is required and goes where. OhanaUnitedTalk page 04:52, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@SHB Thank you, everyone! I’ll help translate articles from Vietnamese into English. If anything doesn’t convey the intended meaning correctly, I’d appreciate your help correcting it! Làm Việc Thiện (talk) 05:24, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@SHB Moc Chau Could you please review this article for me? I wrote it in Vietnamese and then translated it into English. I’d like to know whether the translation is okay and if anything needs to be improved. Làm Việc Thiện (talk) 05:42, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
At a cursory glance, seems great – just had to add the pagebanner + a few missing section headers, but that's about it (copyedits can always be done at any time). //shb (t • c) 05:45, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@Làm Việc Thiện: Reach out to User:Quy Ky Nhân and see if he has any ideas for attracting more editors and readers to Vietnamese Wikivoyage (sorry, he's the only Vietnamese editor that I know of). OhanaUnitedTalk page 20:21, 21 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Thank Làm Việc Thiện (talk) 00:08, 22 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@Mai Thanh Bang I’d like to introduce this person to everyone. They are also an administrator of Vietnamese Wikivoyage and have written many travel articles about different provinces across Vietnam. I hope everyone can connect, communicate, share experiences, and work together to help Wikivoyage grow and develop! Làm Việc Thiện (talk) 03:17, 23 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Thank you, @Làm Việc Thiện, for the kind introduction!
Hello everyone, I'm glad to connect with all of you here. vi.wikivoyage is still growing, and there is certainly a lot for us to learn from your experience. I truly appreciate the helpful advice shared above and look forward to collaborating with you all to build and improve travel content together. Mai Thanh Bang (talk) 03:30, 23 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Greetings, @Mai Thanh Bang! Glad to see you hear and defs looking forward for more collaboration together. :) //shb (t • c) 06:39, 23 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Visa requirements

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Latest comment: 6 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Nice work updating this important information. I wonder if it would be a good idea to put the date of the update as we do with currency and prices. That would help readers know whether they should double check, and might guilt editors into updating the information. Ground Zero (talk) 12:48, 24 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

I've previously thought of this (also when I started that discussion in the pub), but the rather annoying thing about this is that a lastedit date wouldn't account for when a file on Commons gets updated. There's probs still a solution in prose, however, and I'll work something that works more naturally. //shb (t • c) 20:32, 24 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Tech News: 2026-44

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Latest comment: 4 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Weekly highlight

  • An experiment launched on September 29 is testing article recommendations for new account holders who also identify as readers. By suggesting articles to read, similar to recommendations in the Wikipedia app for logged-in readers, the experiment aims to encourage new account holders to read and return to the website regularly, with the goal of increasing internal referrals by 1%. See the related Community Wishlist proposal.
  • Several Wikimedia services were taken offline last week because of a security vulnerability in PHP. This is because they need to be updated before they are safe to put back online. This is not a problem just for the Wikimedia movement but affects a lot of websites. You can follow updates on Wikitech. Cloud VPS and Toolforge will take longer to bring back online. This is to make sure that applications which run on Cloud VPS or Toolforge are not affected. Tool developers can see updates and more information on the Cloud-announce mailing list. [3][4]
  • Last week we shared that to measure the impact of incorporating some community-requested features on logged-out reader retention, a test for the Image Carousel feature would be pushed to logged-out readers. Due to an issue, we will be restarting the test, but it will be live on October 26, not November 20 as initially announced.

Updates for editors

  • A new bot detection system to better identify automated traffic that disguises itself as human visitors, is coming to the Wikimedia wikis. This might cause sudden changes to visitor statistics starting from 26 October, going back to 20 June 2026.
  • The Score extension which renders musical notation inside wiki pages, has been temporarily disabled on all wikis due to a security issue. Affected pages will display a notice instead of musical scores, but the underlying code remains intact. No action is needed from editors, and a fix is in progress. A separate announcement will follow when the extension is re-enabled. Read more on Phabricator.
  • Recurrent item View all 18 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the issue where CodeMirror syntax highlighter appears to have been enabled in error for existing editors has been fixed. [5]

Updates for technical contributors

  • All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on Wednesday, October 28 2026 at 15:00 UTC. This is for the datacenter server switchover backup tests, which happen twice a year. During the switchover, all Wikimedia website traffic is shifted from one primary data center to the backup data center to test availability and prevent service disruption even in emergencies. [6]
  • Recurrent item Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

Meetings and events

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 18:57, 26 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

This Month in Education: October 2026

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Latest comment: 14 hours ago1 comment1 person in discussion

This Month in Education

Volume 15 • Issue 10 • October 2026

In This Issue