Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-07/Technology report

This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Some bug fixes or new features described below have not yet gone live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version, and changes to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active. Configuration changes and changes to interface messages, however, become active immediately.

Bots approved
One new bot task (CheMoBot) was approved this week. CheModBot will monitor verifiable numerical data in infoboxes, in particular CAS registry numbers. There are also currently a large number of open requests, which anyone can comment on.

Bug fixes

 * Hidden categories are no longer displayed when viewing a printable version of a wiki page. (r55727, bug 20466)

New features

 * Special:Contributions has been changed so that it displays a note and excerpt from the block log if the user is currently blocked, and show a change block / unblock link. (r55903, r55909)
 * $wgShowDBErrorBacktrace has been added as a debugging option, to show database connection and query errors. (r55797)
 * A new Ajax spinner graphic Ajax-loader.gif (throbber) has been added to MediaWiki. (r55826)