Hi,

The latest technical newsletter is now available at < https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2016/48%3E. Below is the English version.

You can help write the next newsletter: whenever you see information about Wikimedia technology that you think should be distributed more broadly, you can add it to the next newsletter at < https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next%3E.

More information on how to contribute is available at < https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute%3E. You can also contact me directly.

As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged.

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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/2016/48 are available.

*Changes this week*

- When someone tries to log in to a blocked account they will be blocked by a cookie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:HTTP_cookie. This means their browser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Web_browser will be blocked even if they change their IP address https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:IP_address. This makes it more difficult for returning vandals. [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T5233 - When you use Content Translation https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Content_translation to adapt a template to a new translation it will work differently. You can adapt big templates such as infoboxes. Translators will have control over the template parameters. A first version of this is released this week. It is possible it will not work correctly with all templates. There will be more updates for this soon. [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T139332 - [image: Octicons-sync.svg] The new version https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.29/wmf.4 of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 29 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 30 November. It will be on all wikis from 1 December (calendar https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.29/Roadmap). - [image: Octicons-tools.svg] Gadgets will have a new option called "hidden". This means you can register gadgets that can't be turned on or off from the preferences page. Hiding gadgets was already possible by using [rights=hidden]. You should now use [hidden] instead. [rights=hidden] in old gadgets should be changed to [hidden]. [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Gadgets#Options[4] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T33150

*Meetings*

- [image: Octicons-sync.svg] You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 29 November at 19:00 (UTC) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=19&min=00&sec=0&day=29&month=11&year=2016. See how to join https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Weekly_triage_meetings.

*Future changes*

- [image: Octicons-tools.svg] Tool Labs https://tools.wmflabs.org/ could get two new policies. One would be to be able to adopt tools without an active developer https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Tool_Labs/Abandoned_tool_policy. The other would be a right to fork https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Tool_Labs/Right_to_fork_policy. There is a request for comment on Meta https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Abandoned_Labs_tools .

*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/2016/48 • 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.*

//Johan Jönsson