Latest *tech news https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News* from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2025/12 are available.

*Weekly highlight*

- Twice a year, around the equinoxes, the Wikimedia Foundation's Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team performs a datacenter server switchover https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/Server_switch, redirecting all traffic from one primary server to its backup. This provides reliability in case of a crisis, as we can always fall back on the other datacenter. Thanks to the Listen to Wikipedia http://listen.hatnote.com/ tool, you can hear the switchover take place: Before it begins, you'll hear the steady stream of edits; Then, as the system enters a brief read-only phase, the sound stops for a couple of minutes, before resuming after the switchover. You can read more about the background and details of this process on the Diff blog https://diff.wikimedia.org/2025/03/12/hear-that-the-wikis-go-silent-twice-a-year/. If you want to keep an ear out for the next server switchover, listen to the wikis on March 19 at 14:00 UTC https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1742392800.

*Updates for editors*

- The improved Content Translation tool dashboard https://test.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ContentTranslation&filter-type=automatic&filter-id=previous-edits&active-list=suggestions&from=en&to=es is now available in 10 Wikipedias https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T387820 and will be available for all Wikipedias soon https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T387821. With the unified dashboard https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Content_translation#Improved_translation_experience, desktop users can now: Translate new sections of an article; Discover and access topic-based article suggestion filters https://ig.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ContentTranslation&active-list=suggestions&from=en&to=ig&filter-type=automatic&filter-id=previous-edits (initially available only for mobile device users); Discover and access the Community-defined lists https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Translation_suggestions:_Topic-based_%26_Community-defined_lists filter, also known as "Collections", from wiki-projects and campaigns. - On Wikimedia Commons, a new system to select the appropriate file categories https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:WMF_support_for_Commons/Upload_Wizard_Improvements#Improve_category_selection has been introduced: if a category has one or more subcategories, users will be able to click on an arrow that will open the subcategories directly within the form, and choose the correct one. The parent category name will always be shown on top, and it will always be possible to come back to it. This should decrease the amount of work for volunteers in fixing/creating new categories. The change is also available on mobile. These changes are part of planned improvements to the UploadWizard. - The Community Tech team is seeking wikis to join a pilot for the Multiblocks https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Community_Wishlist_Survey_2023/Multiblocks feature and a refreshed Special:Block page in late March. Multiblocks enables administrators to impose multiple different types of blocks on the same user at the same time. If you are an admin or steward and would like us to discuss joining the pilot with your community, please leave a message on the project talk page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Community_Wishlist_Survey_2023/Multiblocks . - Starting March 25, the Editing team will test a new feature for Edit Check at 12 Wikipedias https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T384372: Multi-Check https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Edit_check#Multi-check. Half of the newcomers on these wikis will see all Reference Checks https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Edit_check#ref during their edit session, while the other half will continue seeing only one. The goal of this test is to see if users are confused or discouraged when shown multiple Reference Checks (when relevant) within a single editing session. At these wikis, the tags used on edits that show References Check will be simplified, as multiple tags could be shown within a single edit. Changes to the tags are documented on Phabricator https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T373949. [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T379131 - The Global reminder bot https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Global_reminder_bot, which is a service for notifying users that their temporary user-rights are about to expire, now supports using the localized name of the user-rights group in the message heading. Translators can see the listing of existing translations and documentation https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_reminder_bot/Translation to check if their language needs updating or creation. - The GlobalPreferences https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:GlobalPreferences gender setting, which is used for how the software should refer to you in interface messages, now works as expected by overriding the local defaults. [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T386584 - [image: Recurrent item] View all 26 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Recently_resolved_community_tasks. For example, the Wikipedia App for Android had a bug fixed for when a user is browsing and searching in multiple languages. [3] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T379777

*Updates for technical contributors*

- Later this week, the way that Codex styles are loaded will be changing. There is a small risk that this may result in unstyled interface message boxes on certain pages. User generated content (e.g. templates) is not impacted. Gadgets may be impacted. If you see any issues please report them https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T388847. See the linked task for details, screenshots, and documentation on how to fix any affected gadgets. - [image: Recurrent item] Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.44/wmf.21

*Tech news https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News prepared by Tech News writers https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/Writers and posted by bot https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_delivery • Contribute https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute • Translate https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2025/12 • Get help https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech • Give feedback https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News • Subscribe or unsubscribe https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambassadors.*