Hi folks,
I know the summary line sounds quite lurid but this is really true and thatfor
I'd like to have your attention and feedback on that matter.
You can find the following analysis of the problem as well at:
http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8188
Some time ago the I18n system of MediaWiki worked in multilanguage wikis like
Wikimedia Commons the following way:
* Look if there is a localised English message at the corresponding MediaWiki
namespace page (directly in SQL database, not transcluded from I18n-file)
regardless of the user language setting.
* If the english message string is existing in the MediaWiki namespace don't
use the transcluded I18n-file for that message in any language but only the
corresponding /<ISO-CODE> sub page if it is directly existing.
* If that page is not existing fall back to the English message
* If neither the english message nor the translated message exists in the
MediaWiki namespace use the transcluded string from the I18n file.
Since some months MediaWiki works the following way:
* If the specific localised message is not existing in MediaWiki namespace
take the transcluded message from the I18n-file.
This is one of the worst UI changes we just realised by random in Commons,
seriously. We did heavily rely on the old behavior. If a message wasn't
existing in the database, the user got the english one. Fine. The changes on
important UI messages were easy to follow and were an acceptable amount of
work. We didn't need to fear that people did get any totally useless UI
messages if they did choose a less common language none of us admins was able
to speak.
Until we realised the change that
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload did show just useless info
and nothing what is absolutely crucial to remind during upload if you did
have a less common language setting it took several months (the corresponding
default message MediaWiki:Uploadtext/<ISO-code> from I18n-files is totally
useless in Commons). Within that period many people did upload a lot of
copyvios simply because they were not able knowing it better.
The result of that severe bug was this huge
overwrite-quick-and-dirty-work-around for this single upload message only:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?offset=&limit=50&target=Ar…
(all messages with the "in order to supress a inadequate default mediawiki
message" change comment).
There are much more important MediaWiki messages existing that would need such
a time consuming and painfull hack ASAP.
So please look at the bugzilla report for further information and on ideas on
how to solve that bug.
As well do you know which software change did cause this to happen?
Cheers, Arnomane