The latest technical newsletter is now available at < https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2021/39%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. ————————————————————————————— Other languages: Deutsch English Hausa Tiếng Việt español français italiano norsk bokmål português português do Brasil slovenčina suomi svenska čeština русский українська עברית اردو العربية فارسی বাংলা 中文 日本語

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/2021/39 are available.

*Recent changes*

- iOS 15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:IOS has a new function called Private Relay https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614 (Apple website). This can hide the user's IP when they use Safari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Safari_(software) browser. This is like using a VPN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Virtual_private_network in that we see another IP address instead. It is opt-in and only for those who pay extra for iCloud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:ICloud. It will come to Safari users on OSX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:OSX later. There is a technical discussion https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T289795 about what this means for the Wikimedia wikis.

*Problems*

- [image: Advanced item] Some gadgets and user-scripts add items to the portlets https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Customization:Explaining_skins#Portlets (article tools) part of the skin. A recent change to the HTML may have made those links a different font-size. This can be fixed by adding the CSS class .vector-menu-dropdown-noicon. [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T291438

*Changes later this week*

- [image: Recurrent item] The new version https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.38/wmf.2 of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 September. It will be on all wikis from 30 September (calendar https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.38/Roadmap). - The GettingStarted extension https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Onboarding_new_Wikipedians#New_experience was built in 2013, and provides an onboarding process for new account holders in a few versions of Wikipedia. However, the recently developed Growth features https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Feature_summary provide a better onboarding experience. Since the vast majority of Wikipedias now have access to the Growth features, GettingStarted will be deactivated starting on 4 October. [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T235752 - A small number of users will not be able to connect to the Wikimedia wikis after 30 September. This is because an old root certificate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:root_certificate will no longer work. They will also have problems with many other websites. Users who have updated their software in the last five years are unlikely to have problems. Users in Europe, Africa and Asia are less likely to have immediate problems even if their software is too old. You can read more https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/HTTPS/2021_Let%27s_Encrypt_root_expiry . - You can receive notifications https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Notifications when someone leaves a comment on user talk page or mentions you in a talk page comment. Clicking the notification link will now bring you to the comment and highlight it. Previously, doing so brought you to the top of the section that contained the comment. You can find more information in T282029. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T282029

*Future changes*

- The Reply tool https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:DiscussionTools#Replying will be deployed to the remaining wikis in the coming weeks. It is currently part of "Discussion tools" in Beta features https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures at most wikis. You will be able to turn it off in Editing Preferences https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion. See the list of wikis. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T288485 [3] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T262331

*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/2021/39 • 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.*