Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:04:30 UTC
There is a great way to misuse {{GENDER:}}: {{GENDER:Username|online|busy|offline}} Use the very same technique for a magic word {{STATUS:}}, please. Like this, users can tell others whether they are online or not. For the first this can be done manually (like with {{GENDER:}} already :-) Afterwards you can improve it to be updated automatically (on log in/out, (in-)activity etc.), if you like.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 6109 ***
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 13520 ***
Bug 6109 is WONTFIXed, I don't like to see that. You can see that it already can work (manually): http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Melancholie?random=123 Just give it a proper name ({{STATUS}} or {{ONLINE}}), to not force people to misuse {{GENDER}}. Bug 13520 is a MediaWiki extension that doesn't seem to be installed on Wikimedia, due to disabling/bypassing the cache. So, this is not a duplicate. Either make a magic word (exactly the same like {{GENDER}}) or see this as a request to enable Extension:OnlineStatus on Wikimedia wikis.
Changing gender to go offline, haha, I love it. Definitely the best MediaWiki feature abuse of the year so far. :)
I'm not convinced this is actually do-able. {{GENDER:}} is parsed based on your user preference of gender, not the user you're currently looking at. The behavior is right, and this bug is actually INVALID, I believe. FWIW: I'm very much against any of the per-user magic words (be it online status, username, user groups, etc) as they break the parser cache.
(In reply to comment #5) > I'm not convinced this is actually do-able. {{GENDER:}} is parsed based on your > user preference of gender, not the user you're currently looking at. The > behavior is right, and this bug is actually INVALID, I believe. 1) I saw Melancholie do it on Meta-Wiki and change it. ;-) 2) Look here: http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Gender#Testing_and_more_examples It seems to also show different users as different genders based on what *they* set.
Looking at the code, it could potentially be one of two genders depending on the situation. For interface messages, it should always be in the gender you set in your preferences. Otherwise, it depends on the passed $user parameter. Not 100% where that user is coming from; is it the user who's page we're on? User who last purged the cache? User who added the tag?
*facepalm* That would be the user passed in the parser function :p So yes, disregard pretty much everything I've said. This "feature" does work as described.
Gender is cached, which means that pages are not updated even if user changes his gender preference. We cannot just provide it with a new name and pretend it would work as you want. You can't have dynamic content on normal pages - only in special pages. (In reply to comment #3) > Just give it a proper name ({{STATUS}} or {{ONLINE}}), to not force people to > misuse {{GENDER}}. We are not forcing anybody. > Either make a magic word (exactly the same like {{GENDER}}) or see this as a > request to enable Extension:OnlineStatus on Wikimedia wikis. One thing in one bug.
