Jump to content

Wikinews:Water cooler/technical/archives/2026/March

Add links
From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!
This is an archive of past discussions from Wikinews:Water cooler/technical/archives/2026. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current page.

Software suggestions for Wikinews:2026 streak competition

Please see the software suggestions which were posted here:

Regards, -- Gryllida (talk) 01:29, 1 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Wikinews Welcome and temporary accounts

Wikinews Welcome is a bot that posts a welcome message to new accounts. Does anyone have access to the bot and if so, can we configure it to welcome new, temporary accounts with a recommendation to 1. Register their accounts and 2. direct them to our primer on what Wikinews is not. Below is a draft idea:

Welcome to Wikinews!

You may edit without creating an account. If you do, your edits will be attributed to a temporary username (for example, ~2026-12345-67) rather than displaying your IP address.

If you’d like to submit news, we’re glad to have your help. Please ensure your work follows Wikinews' policies on neutrality, sourcing, and originality. Before starting an article, review what Wikinews is not — opinion pieces and editorial content do not qualify as news.

Creating a registered account is free and provides additional editing privileges, such as uploading media. Wikinews relies on contributors developing a reputation based on their edits, and a stable username helps build that reputation over time.

@Asked42 and @Bawolff, as our resident tech gurus, can either of you tackle this or point us in the right direction to who can? Thanks.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 15:17, 6 February 2026 (UTC)reply

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:NewUserMessage#In-wiki_configuration Bawolff ☺☻ 19:29, 6 February 2026 (UTC)reply
Thanks. We have that extension installed, so is User:Wikinews Welcome not a bot, but essentially a "shell" account used by the extension, i.e., configured in MediaWiki:Newusermessage-editor?
Should we enable $wgNewUserMessageOnAutoCreate to have our standard welcome message applied to temp accounts?Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 21:37, 6 February 2026 (UTC)reply
I don't think this might be related, but see m:Requests for comment/Welcoming policy, just in case. Codename Noreste (talk) 03:51, 9 February 2026 (UTC)reply
Why invent wheel, {{welcome-anon}} already exists. Content: https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Template:Howdy-anon/content . Or you wanna replace it? I think it is already rather neat... Gryllida 11:44, 12 February 2026 (UTC)reply
I did not like "Wikinews relies on contributors developing a reputation based on their edits, and a stable username helps build that reputation over time.", I do not think it is that important or precise... I would replace with "A registered account helps to configure advanced editing and reading functions, and may make collaboration with other reporters much easier." Gryllida 11:46, 12 February 2026 (UTC)reply
I don't think {{welcome-anon}} is currently being used by any bot to automatically send messages to temporary accounts, which I assume is what Michael C. Wright is referring to. We could create a new template or update Template:Howdy-anon/content with a temporary account specific message since it was originally intended for IP users. -- Asked42 (talk) 17:02, 12 February 2026 (UTC)reply
User:Wikinews Welcome is configured with mw:Extension:NewUserMessage which I assume only sends welcome messages to newly created accounts. As per this, Extension:NewUserMessage cannot be used to send welcome messages to temporary accounts. For that purpose we could create a bot that sends such messages to temporary account users. I am not sure whether such a bot already exists. -- Asked42 (talk) 16:58, 12 February 2026 (UTC)reply
@Asked42, your list of requested coding tasks is growing and I want to respect your time, and in the grand scheme of things, I consider this a low-priority request. Having said that, would you be willing to code such a bot to automatically post a welcome message to newly created temporary accounts after the following conditions are met:
1. The account becomes autoconfirmed (I believe that happens after four days)
2. The account has made at least one edit here, not counting edits to their own user page or talk page
These requirements are meant to avoid sending a welcome message to a global, temporary account when the user has no plans to contribute to this project (as mentioned by Codename above).
Since this is a low-priority task, we could ensure the bot has a "light touch" by having it check only every 24 hours, or whatever you find is a good period for a low-priority task.
The {{welcome-anon}} would suffice but I personally think the notice should be simpler and cleaner. I think welcome-anon is too busy, too complicated, and over-loaded. I assume that many people see a lot of text (including tabs of more text) and simply skip reading it. Which is why I proposed the text above, which can, of-course, be edited to meet consensus on what message we want to convey to such users.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 14:26, 1 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I can code that. But, I have less experience working with bots, especially when it comes to maintaining them. That said, welcoming temporary accounts does not seem too complicated. I will look into it, and after preparing an initial version, I will request bot permission. I think we may need an alternative welcome message template for temporary accounts. Just to clarify, temporary accounts are deactivated and become inaccessible after 90 days, so that is also something we need to consider. --Asked42 (talk) 16:58, 1 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Aren't some (perhaps many) of those anons, spammers? How could this be checked? Like if they made a spam edit then eventually they still become autoconfirmed, if I did not miss something. Gryllida (talk) 19:11, 1 March 2026 (UTC)reply
How many are spammers? Do you have examples? What is the ratio of spammers to legit users? And what does this have to do with spammers?Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 20:09, 1 March 2026 (UTC)reply
There are multiple ways this bot could skip spam-only temporary accounts, such as checking whether the account has been blocked, whether the first edit has been reverted, and so on. Do you have any other suggestions?
But aside from that, why does this need to be checked so strictly? Aren't there spammers among permanent accounts as well? I do not recall there being special checks to avoid welcoming them. I honestly think checking autoconfirmed status and block status should be sufficient. --Asked42 (talk) 20:16, 1 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Ok. I was just wondering if it was worth any effort at all. Probably yes.
Also, I would like to help you with coding but am lost about what needs to be done. Is there a list of pending tasks somewhere which you have not yet taken? Gryllida (talk) 06:42, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I currently do not have or maintain such a pending task list. However, it would be a good idea to maintain one to track what needs to be done and the progress of each task. As for the coding part, you are welcome to help as well. I plan to host the bot on GitHub and run it using GitHub Actions. --Asked42 (talk) 07:22, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply
There is a "Development for Wikinews project" on phab, if something came up that cannot be fixed in 5 minutes, I believe it could be opened and tracked there, if desired. The site takes Wikimedia account login. That could perhaps be helpful. I would also be comfortable with a list of issues in GitHub - I have an account there too. Having tasks mentioned in random places in wiki may not work so well. Gryllida (talk) 07:27, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply
> Just to clarify, temporary accounts are deactivated and become inaccessible after 90 days, so that is also something we need to consider.
They do expire after 90 days, but the talk page remains available.[1]
The primary goal is to encourage account registration so that we can get to know the contributor. I think this is especially important for a news organization, for the contributors to develop a reputation, even if it's the reputation of a pseudonym...
Also, {{Welcome-anon}} is a redirect to {{Howdy-anon}}, which uses as a template {{Howdy-anon/content}}. I'm not really sure why there is such a chain involved and why a subpage is needed.
I could edit Template:Howdy/content so that if a parameter such as temporary is anything but null/empty, our temporary message from above appears. That way we aren't creating a new template. Or maybe a new template is the better idea for simplicity and for future contributors to understand what we did and how we used it.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 20:23, 1 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I think using a separate template such as {{welcome-temporary}} (or any similar name) would be a better option. But I do not have any issue with using a parameter within {{howdy}} instead.
One more thing, I just ran a trial analysis and in the past 30 days there were only 11 temporary accounts that met the condition of being autoconfirmed and making at least one edit. So the number of temporary accounts eligible to receive the welcome message is usually quite small. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:45, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply
How many of them spent more than 5 seconds on the site and then walked away, I am wondering? This does not mean they should not be welcomed, but I am wondering how long their attention span was. This might kind of influence the decision about how often the bot or script should dispatch new messages. Gryllida (talk) 14:01, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply
> I think using a separate template such as {{welcome-temporary}} (or any similar name) would be a better option.
DoneMichael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 15:50, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Requested bot permission at WN:Bots#Requests. --Asked42 (talk) 16:35, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Proposed feature to publish script ezpr2

After publishing and making a lede, offer reviewer to post on social media if reviewer previously configured that option.

For each social media reviewer can set a template for example

"<date>

<url>

<first paragraph> (hash tags)

Write a news today! Http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/WN:WRITE

"

This could be user config in User:Username/ezpr2/report/<name of social media>

or something.

Not sure how to implement. Doing it manually for now and I might burn out... Gryllida 11:41, 12 February 2026 (UTC)reply

Well, this is a very complex requirement. I am not exactly sure how to achieve that. For social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, I am also unsure whether they allow automated posting through their APIs in a way that would work for this use case. If I remember correctly there was some issue with the wikinews facebook account a few years ago where it was hacked. I am not sure who in the wikinews community currently has access to that account. Do you have admin access to it?
If you have any ideas about how we could achieve this, please feel free to share them. You are also welcome to prepare a code prototype and I can integrate it into the script. -- Asked42 (talk) 17:10, 12 February 2026 (UTC)reply
@Asked42 bluesky api https://docs.bsky.app/blog/create-post i can try to make a example hello world code this weekend. also one for mastodon. what language is the bot in, I will write in same language. Gryllida 06:05, 13 February 2026 (UTC)reply
I am not entirely sure which bot you are referring to. EzPR 2 is not a bot and does not use any bot, it is only a user script. I assume you are suggesting using a bot to automatically post newly published articles on Bluesky. If so, to my knowledge no such bot currently exists. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:43, 13 February 2026 (UTC)reply
Yes that is my suggestion, telegram bot could be used as base. Gryllida 09:14, 14 February 2026 (UTC)reply
@Gryllida: It seems that on Bluesky, the Wikinews profile ( @wiki-news.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy) is already actively posting newly published articles. Do you know about this or are you maintaining that account if it is a bot? -- Asked42 (talk) 14:10, 17 February 2026 (UTC)reply
Oh cool. Not mine. It is a bridge from Mastodon, so best to message this. I think it would be good if the user removed trademarked logo and name from two those accounts. Gryllida 19:47, 17 February 2026 (UTC)reply
This stalled, because I did not remember having a Mastodon account or what its credentials were. Someone with a Mastodon account could try sending that user a message about trademark. Gryllida (talk) 14:02, 2 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Suggestion for template change and ezpr2 software change

Hello,

The template “Congratulations, article you contributed to was published” currently does not include a link to the article’s talk page or a note indicating that a review comment has been posted there. It may be helpful to add both a direct link to the talk page and a brief note about the review comment. This could make it easier for contributors to find and engage with reviewer feedback.

Also, I noted that in some cases, reviewers can leave a custom message in EZPR2. As an article contributor, I believe it would be very helpful for me to have the option to receive a copy of the full review comment on my personal talk page, if that is what I would prefer. Would it be possible to make this available as an opt-in feature? I would be glad to add a tag such as Template:POSTFULLCOMMENT to my talk page (or use another suitable marker) to indicate that I have opted in, if that would help with implementation.

Thanks. Gryllida (talk) 22:47, 28 February 2026 (UTC)reply

For the first point, Done: {{Notify review/passed}} now includes the line, "The reviewer's comments and decision are available on the [[Talk:{{{article}}}|article's talk page]]."-- Asked42 (talk) 06:21, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Thank you, Asked42. There is one thing I don't understand about that template. Why not just replace it with something like the following, that is
  • from first person
  • in plain text without the box around it, which kind of feels more like a part of conversation
----
Hi AUTHOR, I just reviewed the article and published it. Congratulations!
My review comments are available on the ARTICLE TALK PAGE.
Excellent work, please keep it up! If you have some time, consider taking a look at other articles currently UNDER DEVELOPMENT or awaiting review. I would greatly appreciate your help in improving or reviewing them.
Note: If you don't want to receive such notifications for your submitted articles, please add {{NOREVIEWNOTIFICATIONS}} to your talk page.
Regards, --
----
Hope this makes sense somewhat. Please let me know if you have any questions. Gryllida (talk) 10:29, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Also, I would suggest removing the {{NOREVIEWNOTIFICATIONS}} feature. It makes no sense to me. To make this request more justified, would you possibly have any idea whether anyone has opted out? Thank you for considering this aspect. Gryllida (talk) 10:32, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
The boxed approach is inspired by Wikipedia. On Wikipedia, after an article is reviewed through the AfC process, authors may receive a similarly designed boxed notice. I thought it was well organized, so I adopted a similar approach in EzPR2025. I understand that some users may not like this design. However, reviewers have the option to use a custom message if they prefer. Personally, I think the boxed design looks good, but if others disagree, I have no issue with modifying it.
By the way the template is open for anyone to edit. If you would like to make changes (while keeping the parameters the same), you are welcome to do so. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:35, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Regarding {{NOREVIEWNOTIFICATIONS}}, I think it is important to keep this option so that users can opt out if they do not wish to receive notifications. In fact, I was also considering allowing users to choose whether they want to receive notifications only for articles they created, or for all articles they contributed to. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:37, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Personally, I think the box with the icon at the top and the color scheme are together, attention-getting. Once can be scrolling through their talk page and quickly see there is an action item waiting (a request for revision).Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 13:46, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I think this feature is useful as do others. You can answer your own question by looking at the "what links here" of the template and selecting "hide links."Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 17:23, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Update to Template:Documentation

I created Template:Documentation/styles.css, whose content model must be changed to Sanitized CSS by an administrator. In addition, I am suggesting the following changes.

  • Please add <templatestyles src="Template:Documentation/styles.css" /> to the top of the documentation template. Currently, Template:Documentation is under cascading (full) protection, presumably due to Template:Latest news and Template:!! (both latter templates must stop using cascading protection and use regular full protection).
  • Please remove the following code blobs from MediaWiki:Common.css, as the documentation template plans to use CSS code from Template:Documentation/styles.css and that currently using ?safemode=1 would break the CSS styling in the documentation template:
.template-documentation { /* for [[Template:Documentation] */
    clear: both;
    margin: 1em 0 0 0;
    border: 1px solid #aaa; 
    background-color: #ecfcf4; /* pale green */
    padding: 5px;
}

/* Template Documentation */
  html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .template-documentation {
    clear: both;
    margin: 1em 0 0 0;
    border: 1px solid #444;
    background-color: #0b1e1c;
    padding: 5px;
    color: #e0e0e0;
  }

/* Template Documentation */
  html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .template-documentation {
    clear: both;
    margin: 1em 0 0 0;
    border: 1px solid #444;
    background-color: #0b1e1c;
    padding: 5px;
    color: #e0e0e0;
  }

Thanks. Codename Noreste (talk) 02:37, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply

I have disabled cascading protection for both of the parent templates so you should now be able to edit Template:Documentation, which is now only protected to auto-confirmed.
Where are you able to see that protection was the result of cascading protection (for future reference)?
I believe @Asked42 will need to help with changes to MediaWiki:Common.cssMichael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 02:49, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Michael.C.Wright, I went to Special:ProtectedPages, then clicked on Cascading protections only under the template namespace. I have also done this edit. Codename Noreste (talk) 02:51, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply
already sighted. ツMichael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 02:52, 3 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Improper 'circle'

Well -- darn. I just published the Pres. Trump article, putting it in at Lead 1. I thought the Randwick City council article would then 'drop' to Lead 2 -- but it vanished. I wish one of our code ninjas could set things up so the 'flow' simply causes the oldest article to drop off, and the 'newest' article lands at the top. Bddpaux (talk) 21:42, 7 March 2026 (UTC)reply

There is a tool for that at User:Asked42/LeadManager, you have to install it in your common.js (instructions are provided). It does exactly that. Gryllida (talk) 06:56, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply
@Bddpaux: Let me know if you need help understanding how it works. Here is a simple guide:
  1. After installing, go to the "Lead Manager Form" section.
  2. Select an article in the "Title" field.
  3. Choose the number of sentences to include in the new lead.
  4. Click "Fetch Automatically" and review the lead content.
  5. Finally, Click "Start Update!" button and confirm the update.
There is also a screen recording video that you may find helpful. File:Lead Manager Usage en wn version April 2025.webm. --Asked42 (talk) 08:29, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Fixed by reverting lead 1 to two versions ago, then using lead manager. Gryllida (talk) 21:31, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply
OK, I will try to get that all set up soon and use it.--Bddpaux (talk) 14:43, 9 March 2026 (UTC)reply
So, this is weird: The Lead Manager form showed up for a hot minute -- and has now vanished!--Bddpaux (talk) 18:10, 9 March 2026 (UTC)reply
That's weird. Is it still happening? If so, could you try purging the page and then check whether the form appears? If not, you could also check out this page and see whether the form shows up there. @Bddpaux. -- Asked42 (talk) 17:04, 10 March 2026 (UTC)reply
The only time we'd need to manually mess with leads 2-5 would be to correct issues or handle some odd exception, such as keeping Lead 1 as Lead 1 for an extended duration for some emergency or something.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 17:17, 10 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Now an article is listed twice on the main page. Sorry, I cannot manually fix it, requires too much focus (which I don't have). Gryllida (talk) 22:49, 10 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I was assuming fixing this requires using some tool (either Make Lead, or Lead Manager) for all five leads. Is this correct? Think I should ask this here in case there is an easier fix. Gryllida (talk) 23:04, 10 March 2026 (UTC)reply

This problem is actually getting worse. The last four articles published have not yet been featured on the front page. If there is a tool that solves this problem, it needs to be required and any tools that don't solve this problem should be deleted. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 01:29, 12 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Request for multi-URL support for 'Source' tool

Hi @Asked42

I'm writing with https://gryllida.neocities.org/news/writer/V4/ and often I have multiple URL to insert, average 2-4 sources. Could the source tool which fetches the metadata, handle multiple URLs? This could be multiline input and then it could ask me to cross check its output for each source.

Regards, -- Gryllida (talk) 07:51, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply

It currently can only handle one URL at a time, but I can set up some APIs that you can use to process multiple requests at once. Does WfW use SourceHelper? --Asked42 (talk) 08:15, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply
One more thing: the Source tool is not 100% guaranteed to fetch all metadata. For some lesser known news sites or more complicated cases, it may struggle. This is the same tool that is used on Wikipedia. --Asked42 (talk) 08:18, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I was thinking like "present the user with multiline box. When user clicked ok, then: click Source button, paste url 1, click fetch, wait for user to check metadata and click ok. Repeat this for each url." Gryllida (talk) 10:26, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply
No, WfW does not fill source templates, that is left for on-wiki tools. Gryllida (talk) 10:27, 8 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Writer new release v5

Please test new version, it is kind of article drafter for saving work offline 

https://gryllida.neocities.org/news/writer/V4/
  • now it copies wiki markup to clipboard and opens directly where to paste.
  • It is possible to "install" it to android home screen.
  • Draft is saved immediately without annoying prompts "saved to local storage"
  • main purpose is comfort for android users with unstable internet

WfW = writer for Wikinews

( Previous version was here https://gryllida.neocities.org/news/writer/v3/index-3.html had progress bar and check list )

Thanks. Gryllida (talk) 11:59, 6 March 2026 (UTC)reply

writer for wikinews screenshot v5
writer for wikinews screenshot v5
Screenshot... Gryllida (talk) 12:02, 6 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Related; mw:Extension:PWA. -- Gryllida (talk) 00:18, 13 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Side note, this app is a lot more responsive than the wiki, if that is the correct word. It loads instantly (compare with 2 seconds for edit mode to open on a 1GBps link, and after saving the page 2 seconds to go to read mode and another 2 seconds to edit mode. There are gadget to 'save and keep editing' but if internet died or browser crashed then the work may be lost, and the page may lag when typing or when scrolling the text, both on laptop and on mobile). It helped me succeed in writing 5-6 stories this week. I think it works on Android as well as iOS. I am not sure what to do with it next... currently it is just an interactive notepad, it is completely disconnected from the wiki... I am hoping you have some ideas, I would be happy to add them. Gryllida (talk) 10:32, 13 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Bug report for ezpr2 pre review: missing user comms

The pre review, I tested it out on one page, it does not notify the page contributors like a full review does. Perhaps it should somehow, at least in Echo, if not the users' talk pages? Gryllida (talk) 12:36, 7 March 2026 (UTC)reply

The pre-review is not part of EzPR25; it comes under the SubmitWizard. At the time when pre-review was added to the SubmitWizard, the practice of pre-reviewing was quite limited. But yes, I will add an option to automatically ping users on pre review interface. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:03, 7 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Also, related, it would be great if I could comment on a draft on its talk page and @mention all the contributors (with tick boxes nexr to nicks). In enwp draft review their software has a button to comment on the draft without doing a review, though theirs is more primitive and useless. Gryllida (talk) 10:35, 13 March 2026 (UTC)reply
And thank you. :-) Gryllida (talk) 10:36, 13 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Inline comment tool status check

Hi @Asked42

Please confirm whether you are working on an inline comments gadget. If not, I can write a basic version. Gryllida (talk) 10:29, 9 March 2026 (UTC)reply

I was working on that. It can be used independently by a reviewer or together with EzPR2025. But then, I felt there was not much interest in it so I stopped. I will resume work and complete the script. -- Asked42 (talk) 11:26, 9 March 2026 (UTC)reply
👍 Gryllida (talk) 15:51, 9 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Hi @Asked42, please let me know if the work on this is ongoing, and if I can be involved in coding or testing. If there is some other JS task that you would like me to do I would be happy to get started on it. Thanks Gryllida (talk) 00:19, 13 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I was a bit busy IRL for the past three days, so there hasn't been much progress since my last comment, although a little work has been done. Thank you for your interest in collaboratively developing/coding the scripts. But, I honestly don't have a very structured plan for developing them. I usually have a rough plan in my mind and in my notes, and then start developing. So I am not sure if there is any specific place where I can point to collaborate right now. I know that's not an ideal practice, but I am working on organizing my development process a bit more. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:11, 13 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Hello, the inline comment gadget (named DynamicMarking) is now available. Please try it out and test it. Detailed documentation is available at WN:EzPR2025/Dynamic Marking.
Here is a quick explanation of how to activate it and attach comments:
  1. Go to any article that is not published.
  2. If you are using Windows, press Alt + Shift + M together. (On macOS, press cmd + Shift + M.)
  3. Dynamic Marking mode will be activated. Select any text in the article, and an icon () will appear next to the selected text. Click the icon.
  4. A popover box will open. Enter your comment and click Save. That's all.
  5. Don't forget to deactivate Dynamic Marking mode by pressing Alt + Shift + M again. (On macOS, cmd + Shift + M.)
-- Asked42 (talk) 07:37, 14 March 2026 (UTC)reply

The lead articles need to be changed

The last four articles published are not featured on the front page:

This problem is getting worse than it was a few days ago. If there is a tool such as Lead Manager that solves this problem, it needs to be required. Any tools for changing the front page headlines that don't deal with this problem correctly should be deleted so that whoever does this sort of thing will have to use the correct tool. ----Metropolitan90 (talk) 13:11, 12 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Thank you for keeping an eye on it. I’ve updated the five leads.
This likely reflects the current mix of reviewers rather than a tooling issue. We have one brand-new reviewer and another returning after a long break, during which a few tools—such as Lead Manager—were added. It’s easy to overlook the final publish step after reviewing, and once the five leads fall out of order it takes a little work to sort them again.
For now it probably just means keeping an eye on it and helping everyone get comfortable with the newer tools and processes.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 13:29, 12 March 2026 (UTC)reply

The problem happened again with Two students die when boats capsize in Japan not being featured. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 13:58, 17 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Does @Lofi Gurl know how to do the changes? @Metropolitan90 Don Don 14:28, 17 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I tried to do it but I f***ed something up and the f***up was on the Main Page, so I had to self-revert. Lofi Gurl (talk) 16:21, 17 March 2026 (UTC)reply
What tool are you using to update the leads? Or are you updating them manually?
I see you're using MakeLead, which is the old version and not as intuitive as the new one; User:Asked42/LeadManager.js. I recommend you install LeadManager, it is much easier to use and automatically performs the full shuffle of lead 1→2, 2→3, 3→4, etc.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 17:43, 17 March 2026 (UTC)reply
@Asked42 has offered to install it for you if you'd prefer.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 17:49, 17 March 2026 (UTC)reply
yes I would like that. Lofi Gurl (talk) 18:18, 17 March 2026 (UTC)reply
@Lofi Gurl: Done. To use it, visit User:Asked42/LeadManager#Lead Manager Form and follow these steps:
  1. You will see a form. In the Title field, select the article that you just published.
  2. Click the Fetch automatically button.
  3. After the summary and images are added, click Start Update.
  4. Confirm the update and wait a few seconds for it to complete. Done.
If you need any help or face any issues, please let me know. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:58, 18 March 2026 (UTC)reply

Ezpr2 bug with empty custom message

Issue: .... then, i clicked submit, and the story published. I left weird looking messages to users: they included template, one user was addressed by name and others were addressed as "User".

Proposed fix: I think if i specified custom message but did not fill it in, i should get asked to fill it in before submitting my review. (Also, in edit summary to user talk page, the section name should be included so i can click it in edit history page, and go directly to that section.)

Hope it makes sense...

Thanks a lot. Gryllida (talk) 12:43, 22 March 2026 (UTC)reply

@Gryllida: The issue with the {{{user}}} parameter showing as resolved has been fixed. I recently made some modifications to the notification system, and I guess I introduced that bug during the process. Sorry about that.
Regarding the template being used when the custom comment is empty: that was intentional, as otherwise an empty section would be created on the user's talk page. I will also add a check so that if the custom comment is empty, the reviewer cannot submit the review. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:17, 22 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Thanks Asked42, such a check would be helpful I think. :) Gryllida (talk) 13:22, 22 March 2026 (UTC)reply

"Incorrectly flagged articles"

At Wikinews:Newsroom, there is a section labeled "Incorrectly flagged articles". This section appears to be a mess. There are four retracted older articles in there, which are supposedly "incorrectly" flagged, but it is unknown what was incorrect about the flagging of those articles. Two of those articles are from 2013, one from 2021, and the other from 2025, so if anything is supposed to be done about them, it should be done already.

However, the fifth article is Two Cuba-bound aid boats located by Mexican Navy after going missing, an article which is currently {{under review}}. It hasn't been "flagged" either correctly or incorrectly but is being reviewed. It ought to be listed in the "Submitted for peer review" section (where it does not currently appear) and omitted from "Incorrectly flagged articles".

I asked a somewhat similar question at Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2025/October but the problem doesn't appear to have been resolved. -- Metropolitan90 (talk) 03:05, 30 March 2026 (UTC)reply

In the case of the article Two Cuba-bound aid boats located by Mexican Navy after going missing, it has been marked stable ("flagged" in FlaggedRevs) in error, before being published. This can happen if a reviewer "sights" or approves changes before the article is published, which is relatively easy to accidentally do. User:Bawolff/sandbox/powerFlag no longer seems to work to de-flag articles in FlaggedRevs. But that article should disappear from the list once it's published or deleted as abandoned.
The other issue is a lack of consensus or documentation on exactly how to retract an article.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 07:02, 30 March 2026 (UTC)reply
I started Wikinews:Retraction policy in January in an attempt to get the process documented. I haven't officially proposed it yet. Input is welcome at the talk page.Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Reviewer) 07:32, 30 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Thanks, Michael, but if Wikinews is now scheduled to be closed, I don't know if we need to deal with this any more. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 13:24, 30 March 2026 (UTC)reply
Retrieved from "https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews:Water_cooler/technical/archives/2026/March&oldid=5022881"