Last modified: 2014-03-17 14:23:42 UTC
The way the sidebar is implemented in Language.php now (1.563) there are at least one (perhaps two) items that most sites wont need: ** currentevents-url|currentevents and perhaps ** sitesupport-url|sitesupport I suggest they be commented out.
Created attachment 611 [details] Unified (3 lines) patch made to Language.php 1.563, made with Winmerge
as mediawiki is primarily used for wikimedia websites, which use these entries, i'm not sure changing the default is particularly useful.
Note: These entries can be hidden by any admin by setting the relevant MediaWiki:... page to "-"; as of 1.4, they can also be completely rearranged in LocalSettings.php by anyone with appropriate access to that file.
[Sorry - I think that comment is out of date, as the sidebar code seems to have been changed yet again]
I know that anyone can fix this in MediaWiki:, (and note that from now on its done i MediaWiki:sidebar, using "-" will not work, try test.leuksman.com with "Norsk (nynorsk)" interface language) however most sites that need these links, including Wikimedia sites, already use the MediaWiki namespace for the sidebar. The majority of Wikimedia sites (small languages) wont need the "current events" links either because the communities are too small to keep such a page up to date. nn.wikipedia.org f.ex. don't use it. Note that I files this bug exactly because I don't want the current events link on nn.wikipedia.org, and was going to implement it in LanguageNn.php, but then Avar went ahead and added a comment in Language.php that we're not supposed to do this.
(In reply to comment #4) > [Sorry - I think that comment is out of date, as the sidebar code seems to have > been changed yet again] And now my comment is also somewhat out of date:-)
(In reply to comment #5) > Note that I files this bug exactly because I don't want the current events link > on nn.wikipedia.org, and was going to implement it in LanguageNn.php, but then > Avar went ahead and added a comment in Language.php that we're not supposed to > do this. The interface in MediaWiki should be kept consistant across languages, and that includes the sidebar which should be the same for them all. Note however that since I changed the sidebar generating code it's now trivial to change the sidebars, after 1.5 goes live you can edit MediaWiki:Sidebar at nn.wikipedia.org and remove the current events entry, or even add new ones.
in replay to comment 7 "The interface in MediaWiki should be kept consistant across languages" It *should* but it is *not*. I visited several wikis two months ago trying to link "village pumps" (some can be reached directly from at "community portal"), ambassies, etc. In bug 2030: "anomalies in the "Navigation" menue while selcting a different languages in [[Special:Preferences]]" I tried to explain this and related impacts. The navigation does / did *not* depend on the "content" of the wiki. It is / was depending on the selected user interface. This is not the *optimal* solution. Regards Reinhardt [[user:gangleri]]
(In reply to comment #8) > in replay to comment 7 "The interface in MediaWiki should be kept consistant > across languages" > > It *should* but it is *not*. I visited several wikis two months ago trying to > link "village pumps" (some can be reached directly from at "community portal"), > ambassies, etc. The sites that you had problems with were Wikimedia sites, Wikimedia sites do not run a stock configuration of MediaWiki and that goes for the sidebars too, specifically people sometimes change the messages so that the current events or donations link is not displayed and sometimes even use the current events message to link to a completely different page. There might be a problem however with some language files currently in CVS, and if so, please file bugs for those.
I haven't filed this bug because I want to keep nn.wikipedia simple, I know, and knew that its perfectly simple to do that trough the MediaWiki namespace. I've file this bug because I think the two items (donations and current events) will not be needed on the average MediaWiki wiki, and thus they should be diabled.
I changed the summary to reflect what this is actually about. I should also mention that before I changed the sidebar code to its current form the Donations link was not on in the default distribution, I put it back in because I thought that it could be removed anyway.
Using 1.5beta3, setting the messages to '-' doesn't disable them---it just causes '-' to show up in the sidebar. It *does* still work to disable the disclaimer footer though.
Setting the _link_ messages to '-' should indeed work. Setting the _text_ messages doesn't. I'm not totally sure what's the best way to handle it, but the text form was problematic -- it meant that changing UI languages could make things appear and disappear, which really is bad behavior. I think it's more consistent to control that with the link messages (or ... just remove them from the sidebar).
In Catalan Wikipedia "Actualitat" at the left of all our pages linked to "Viquipèdia:Actualitat", but now it links to "Current events". Please, would some body remake the ancient link. Please, can some body place in our pages the word "Donacions" (catalan) instead of "Donations" (english) and link it to: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donatius
What this boiled down to was that a user didn't agree with the default sidebar. That's all right, not all sites will need a donations link, or links to community portals and so forth; this is why we make it easy to change. It's more targeted as examples of what might be suitable for the sidebar.
