Arwel Parry wrote:
On the cy: wikipedia we have noticed that user "MediaWiki default" (a bot?) seems to run every 6 months or so and repeatedly resets many of the MediaWiki strings either to an older version which has been corrected or (even worse) to English. I've just had to edit :cy:MediaWiki:Go from "mynd" (travel) to "ewch" (imperative) again!
It is intensely annoying to have to repeatedly go through Special:Allmessages trying to find out what has been screwed up (our users usually notice when the labels of the editing tabs or the sidebar go crazy). I know you need to create new strings for new features in MediaWiki but for goodness' sake can the bot be altered so that it doesn't interfere with pre-existing strings?
Unless someone's requested an explicit overwrite run, only messages either not present or last edited by 'MediaWiki default' (ie those created by the installer or periodic upgrades and refreshes) are automatically updated. If something's been auto-updated that shouldn't have, perhaps either it's a bug (in which case details always help to track it down!) or the language file has changed that way and it's a legitimate update from the software's point of view.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)