User blog:Jpearson/Technical Update: February 24, 2023

Hey everyone! We have a few updates since February 10, 2023. We’ll continue to update the editor community on bug fixes and product development updates bi-weekly!

Known Issues

 * Copy/Pasting issues in 2017 source mode. We've continued to investigate why copying and pasting text sometimes makes the editor extremely slow, especially when syntax highlighting is available. Through that investigation we've discovered that the issue isn't unique to Fandom, but rather an issue with core MediaWiki. We've reached out to our partners at the Wikimedia Foundation to understand what level of priority the issue is to fix. In the meantime, we're going to consider what if any solutions might be available to us on our end.


 * Post History issues for international wikis. Post History pages fail to load on international wikis that don't have a language subpath. We’re prioritizing this issue so international wikis can experience Post History without error!

Mobile

 * Mobile CSS. We’re finalizing updates to our customization policy that will now include mobile considerations. As that’s being finalized, we’ll be setting up SEO tests with select communities to ensure there are no negative repercussions to enabling mobile CSS editing. We expect to release this by the end of this quarter, which ends on March 31st.


 * Mobile Theming. Theme Designer preview will show links being underlined "live" whenever a link color is chosen that doesn't have enough contrast and vice versa, to disappear when a color with enough contrast to the text has been selected. Users should expect to see the fix by next week.

Discussions/Feeds

 * Post/Reply History.Post history is now live! We've received great feedback and a few bug reports and are continuing to resolve them. We fixed the issue where any user could access the history of deleted posts and replies by entering the URL directly. Anyone without mod or admin rights will now see an error instead. This was a priority to alleviate the privacy concerns voiced by several users who were concerned that post history reveals personal information with no way to hide it without staff involvement. If you haven’t already, check out the blog post to learn more about Post History and what it entails.


 * Easier access to moderation tools.We’re excited to share that admins and moderators can access moderation and other user-related tools (like Special:Block and Special:UserRights) directly from a user’s profile in Discussions making it easier to access these tools.


 * On-site notifications for reported posts.We are continuing to test the code for providing on-site notifications when posts are reported. We expect this to be released in the next few weeks!


 * Anti-vandalism restriction.We are continuing to investigate adding in a rate limit to Discussions that will reduce the number of images people can post in a certain amount of time, following up on a recent wave of image-based spam attacks.

Platform

 * Two-Factor Authentication. Two-Factor Authentication is here! Back in November, we mentioned the arrival of the optional security measure to provide a layer of protection for users. In this recent announcement, Dylan Host explains what 2FA is and how you can add it to your account.


 * MediaWiki 1.39 Upgrade.Last week we announced the timeline for MediaWiki 1.39 and what you can expect to see during the migration process. Early next week, the first batch of wikis will be migrated. Throughout the month of March, new wikis created in the platform will use MW 1.39. Community team testing ahead of migrations is also going well, and we’re nearly finished on reviewing extensions to ensure they’re compatible with 1.39.


 * Extension Review. In the very near-future, our Community, Product, and Tech teams are excited to present the results of the Extension Review nominations for Q1! After reviewing the bandwidth of the teams and comparing the most workable extensions to our internal goals for our development work with editors, we decided to go ahead and choose the most potentially-impactful extension on the list and prioritize it for being added to the platform. That way, the community has an opportunity to experience an extension that we can implement in a timely manner. We’ll announce the chosen extension soon, including diving into why we made a few changes (like going ahead and choosing the winner) to the process for the rest of the year.

Other

 * Editor Research. Our User Experience Research (UXR) team is continuing to work on multiple research projects to learn more about how we can help make people’s entry into wiki editing easier. This is part of one of our themes this year, which is to encourage even more editing on the platform.


 * Fandom App. We recently conducted a survey of Fandom app users to see what, if any, changes and updates to the app would be most useful to them. We are analyzing these results internally to help determine when and if to make updates in the near-future.


 * Community Connect. Planning for Community Connect 2023 (April 23 - April 27) continues. We’re preparing our first wave of invites to go out soon, and are working on the agenda for what we’ll talk about with attendees. Remember that even if you don’t receive an in-person invite, we’ll be livestreaming the event for anyone else who wants to watch. Stay tuned for more details!

If there’s anything you still think needs to be fixed that hasn’t yet, please be sure to either contact your Wiki Representative or, if your wiki doesn’t have one, send us a bug report!