Current events - Revision history

ShadowWolf at 03:12, 24 May 2018

2018-05-24T03:12:13Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:12, 23 May 2018
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			Took a bit and there might be a few missing images as I went a bit crazy cleaning things up when I found that I couldn't update because our host is running an old, unsupported version of PHP, but I've managed to, hopefully, get things working to the point that they were before. Sadly... SematicForms had a name-change and despite using a version that claimed to match to the MediaWiki version we're stuck on, the renamed code-base had errors.

			In other news... As it says in the banner (might be gone by now), our Captcha system is repaired - seems that there was a change in some variable names and in how the config of the setup worked. It wasn't cleanly documented. Sorry that it was missed for so long.

			--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 22:12, 23 May 2018 (CDT)
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	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	I've gone and done it and it didn't cost all that much once I found the right reseller. That's right - I've purchased an SSL cert for Shifti that is good for the next 3 years.		I've gone and done it and it didn't cost all that much once I found the right reseller. That's right - I've purchased an SSL cert for Shifti that is good for the next 3 years.
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	--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 01:09, 4 February 2017 (CST)		--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 01:09, 4 February 2017 (CST)
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	~~=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===~~
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	Y'know how that upgrade of MediaWiki (as mentioned below) ate our skin and some of our customizations, yet again? That was kind of the final straw for our more tech-minded admins. We're presently looking at and working on a replacement backend for Shifti. The hope is that this way we can add a few more Useful Collaborative Tools and also stop having to recreate things we use every time a security hole is discovered. The hope is to make this as unobtrusive and undisruptive as possible for our users whereever feasible (y'all are why we're here, after all!).		Y'know how that upgrade of MediaWiki (as mentioned below) ate our skin and some of our customizations, yet again? That was kind of the final straw for our more tech-minded admins. We're presently looking at and working on a replacement backend for Shifti. The hope is that this way we can add a few more Useful Collaborative Tools and also stop having to recreate things we use every time a security hole is discovered. The hope is to make this as unobtrusive and undisruptive as possible for our users whereever feasible (y'all are why we're here, after all!).

ShadowWolf: we now have SSL and secure connections available

2017-02-04T07:09:01Z

we now have SSL and secure connections available

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:09, 4 February 2017
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			I've gone and done it and it didn't cost all that much once I found the right reseller. That's right - I've purchased an SSL cert for Shifti that is good for the next 3 years.

			Yep, you heard me, Shifti is now "Secure" and will default to using 'https' from now on.

			Thank you and have a good day!
			--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 01:09, 4 February 2017 (CST)
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			=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	Y'know how that upgrade of MediaWiki (as mentioned below) ate our skin and some of our customizations, yet again? That was kind of the final straw for our more tech-minded admins. We're presently looking at and working on a replacement backend for Shifti. The hope is that this way we can add a few more Useful Collaborative Tools and also stop having to recreate things we use every time a security hole is discovered. The hope is to make this as unobtrusive and undisruptive as possible for our users whereever feasible (y'all are why we're here, after all!).		Y'know how that upgrade of MediaWiki (as mentioned below) ate our skin and some of our customizations, yet again? That was kind of the final straw for our more tech-minded admins. We're presently looking at and working on a replacement backend for Shifti. The hope is that this way we can add a few more Useful Collaborative Tools and also stop having to recreate things we use every time a security hole is discovered. The hope is to make this as unobtrusive and undisruptive as possible for our users whereever feasible (y'all are why we're here, after all!).
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	::--[[User:Viqsi\|Viqsi]] ([[User talk:Viqsi\|talk]]) 12:00, 15 January 2017 (CST)		::--[[User:Viqsi\|Viqsi]] ([[User talk:Viqsi\|talk]]) 12:00, 15 January 2017 (CST)
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	~~=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===~~
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	In trying to fix the issue with the 403 errors I upgraded to MediaWiki 1.26 - during this the 'skins' directory apparently disappeared.		In trying to fix the issue with the 403 errors I upgraded to MediaWiki 1.26 - during this the 'skins' directory apparently disappeared.

Viqsi: so we're doing something crazy now and we should probably warn people :)

2017-01-15T18:04:44Z

so we're doing something crazy now and we should probably warn people :)

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 In trying to fix the issue with the 403 errors I upgraded to MediaWiki 1.26 - during this the 'skins' directory apparently disappeared.
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 ::--[[User:ShadowWolf|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf|talk]]) 22:30, 3 March 2016 (CST)
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-=== {{Separator|k|Old News}} ===
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 I have just received notification from Google that the new version of ReCaptcha - based on detecting browser information that can generally differentiate a human from a bot - is now available for general purpose use. I am going to see if the Captcha framework module we rely on has an updated version capable of using it.

ShadowWolf: 403 issue temporarily fixed

2016-03-04T04:30:16Z

403 issue temporarily fixed

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:30, 3 March 2016
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			In trying to fix the issue with the 403 errors I upgraded to MediaWiki 1.26 - during this the 'skins' directory apparently disappeared.

			A bit later I came across a quick patch style fix that papers over the issue causing the 403's without addressing the root cause. There is some hope that we can work with the hosting company to get a proper fix in place.

			On a different topic... My backups are on a couple of hard drives that are not currently attached to my laptop. If anyone has a copy of the backups that were made available from before the move to the hosted system, please contact me. This will save quite a bit of work in rebuilding our custom skin.
			::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 22:30, 3 March 2016 (CST)
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			=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	I have just received notification from Google that the new version of ReCaptcha - based on detecting browser information that can generally differentiate a human from a bot - is now available for general purpose use. I am going to see if the Captcha framework module we rely on has an updated version capable of using it.		I have just received notification from Google that the new version of ReCaptcha - based on detecting browser information that can generally differentiate a human from a bot - is now available for general purpose use. I am going to see if the Captcha framework module we rely on has an updated version capable of using it.
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	::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 18:31, 1 July 2015 (CDT)		::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 18:31, 1 July 2015 (CDT)
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	~~=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===~~
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	The Asirra (cat&dog picture) Captcha system that we have been using for the last few years has shut down.		The Asirra (cat&dog picture) Captcha system that we have been using for the last few years has shut down.

ShadowWolf: great news!

2015-07-01T23:31:00Z

great news!

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:31, 1 July 2015
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	:Alright, the AYAH bit is not possible - the service providers reserve the right to insert advertisements along with the Captcha. However, it appears that the ConfirmEdit extension is currently without a maintainer and the Wikimedia Foundation is maintaining it steady-state for now. This does mean, however, that several patches have been suggested, one of which does enable the ReCaptcha v2 API and the use of ReCaptcha v2 entirely.		:Alright, the AYAH bit is not possible - the service providers reserve the right to insert advertisements along with the Captcha. However, it appears that the ConfirmEdit extension is currently without a maintainer and the Wikimedia Foundation is maintaining it steady-state for now. This does mean, however, that several patches have been suggested, one of which does enable the ReCaptcha v2 API and the use of ReCaptcha v2 entirely.
	:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:57, 1 July 2015 (CDT)		:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:57, 1 July 2015 (CDT)

			ReCaptcha v.2 integrated and basic test completes without complaint. Site is unlocked to new registration and after I hit the "post" button here I'm going to change the banner.
			::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 18:31, 1 July 2015 (CDT)
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ShadowWolf: little bit of bad news followed by a larger chunk of good news

2015-07-01T22:57:07Z

little bit of bad news followed by a larger chunk of good news

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:57, 1 July 2015
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	:Okay, ReCaptcha 2 is not yet merged with the ConfirmEdit framework - however, their "testing/unstable" branch does seem to have a module that will work for us based on a service called "Are You A Human" that seems to work in a similar manner to Asirra. I'll be working to bring that into Shifti today.		:Okay, ReCaptcha 2 is not yet merged with the ConfirmEdit framework - however, their "testing/unstable" branch does seem to have a module that will work for us based on a service called "Are You A Human" that seems to work in a similar manner to Asirra. I'll be working to bring that into Shifti today.
	:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:44, 1 July 2015 (CDT)		:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:44, 1 July 2015 (CDT)

			:Alright, the AYAH bit is not possible - the service providers reserve the right to insert advertisements along with the Captcha. However, it appears that the ConfirmEdit extension is currently without a maintainer and the Wikimedia Foundation is maintaining it steady-state for now. This does mean, however, that several patches have been suggested, one of which does enable the ReCaptcha v2 API and the use of ReCaptcha v2 entirely.
			:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:57, 1 July 2015 (CDT)
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	=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===		=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===

ShadowWolf: Some actual good news

2015-07-01T22:44:57Z

Some actual good news

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:44, 1 July 2015
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	I have just received notification from Google that the new version of ReCaptcha - based on detecting browser information that can generally differentiate a human from a bot - is now available for general purpose use. I am going to see if the Captcha framework module we rely on has an updated version capable of using it.		I have just received notification from Google that the new version of ReCaptcha - based on detecting browser information that can generally differentiate a human from a bot - is now available for general purpose use. I am going to see if the Captcha framework module we rely on has an updated version capable of using it.
	::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:41, 1 July 2015 (CDT)		::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:41, 1 July 2015 (CDT)

			:Okay, ReCaptcha 2 is not yet merged with the ConfirmEdit framework - however, their "testing/unstable" branch does seem to have a module that will work for us based on a service called "Are You A Human" that seems to work in a similar manner to Asirra. I'll be working to bring that into Shifti today.
			:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:44, 1 July 2015 (CDT)
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	=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===		=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===

ShadowWolf: small update with some hopefully good news

2015-07-01T22:41:43Z

small update with some hopefully good news

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:41, 1 July 2015
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			I have just received notification from Google that the new version of ReCaptcha - based on detecting browser information that can generally differentiate a human from a bot - is now available for general purpose use. I am going to see if the Captcha framework module we rely on has an updated version capable of using it.
			::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 17:41, 1 July 2015 (CDT)
			</div>
			=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	The Asirra (cat&dog picture) Captcha system that we have been using for the last few years has shut down.		The Asirra (cat&dog picture) Captcha system that we have been using for the last few years has shut down.
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	:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 20:33, 12 October 2014 (CDT)		:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 20:33, 12 October 2014 (CDT)
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	~~=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===~~
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	It seems that something went wonky with a security feature of the server that the hosts insists on yesterday and stopped all significant edits from occurring. The fine folks working the technical support department of our hosting provider managed to locate the cause really fast and after examining things on their end found that it was easy to fix.		It seems that something went wonky with a security feature of the server that the hosts insists on yesterday and stopped all significant edits from occurring. The fine folks working the technical support department of our hosting provider managed to locate the cause really fast and after examining things on their end found that it was easy to fix.

ShadowWolf: new account creation temporarily disabled

2014-10-13T01:33:21Z

new account creation temporarily disabled

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:33, 12 October 2014
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	I have temporarily activated a different Captcha system, but if it is a permanent change or if we'll be switching to a different system has yet to be decided. If anyone has tried to sign-up since the start of the month and couldn't because the Captcha didn't work, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I did not pay attention to how Asirra was going even though I knew the system was still in Beta and might go away at any time.		I have temporarily activated a different Captcha system, but if it is a permanent change or if we'll be switching to a different system has yet to be decided. If anyone has tried to sign-up since the start of the month and couldn't because the Captcha didn't work, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I did not pay attention to how Asirra was going even though I knew the system was still in Beta and might go away at any time.
	::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 23:19, 11 October 2014 (CDT)		::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 23:19, 11 October 2014 (CDT)

			:After the rash of account creations after switching to ReCaptcha thanks to the Asirra shutdown we've temporarily disabled account creation. We have had 15 new accounts created, and only one of them is verified as not being a bot - the rest have names that meet the standards of an auto-generated bot name.
			:::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 20:33, 12 October 2014 (CDT)
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ShadowWolf: minor news item

2014-10-12T04:19:22Z

minor news item

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:19, 11 October 2014
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			The Asirra (cat&dog picture) Captcha system that we have been using for the last few years has shut down.

			I have temporarily activated a different Captcha system, but if it is a permanent change or if we'll be switching to a different system has yet to be decided. If anyone has tried to sign-up since the start of the month and couldn't because the Captcha didn't work, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I did not pay attention to how Asirra was going even though I knew the system was still in Beta and might go away at any time.
			::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 23:19, 11 October 2014 (CDT)
			</div>
			=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	It seems that something went wonky with a security feature of the server that the hosts insists on yesterday and stopped all significant edits from occurring. The fine folks working the technical support department of our hosting provider managed to locate the cause really fast and after examining things on their end found that it was easy to fix.		It seems that something went wonky with a security feature of the server that the hosts insists on yesterday and stopped all significant edits from occurring. The fine folks working the technical support department of our hosting provider managed to locate the cause really fast and after examining things on their end found that it was easy to fix.
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	::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 12:55, 19 September 2014 (CDT)		::--[[User:ShadowWolf\|ShadowWolf]] ([[User talk:ShadowWolf\|talk]]) 12:55, 19 September 2014 (CDT)
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	~~=== {{Separator\|k\|Old News}} ===~~
	<div class="content-block-body">		<div class="content-block-body">
	It seems that the Asirra captcha mechanism is broken again. It might be related to an error that has started popping up on pages where a bit of javascript is broken. Said bit of javascript refers to a variable that should exist (and in the past did exist) but is, apparently, no longer being created before it is being used. I don't know if this is because Firefox and Chrome (the two browsers I've tested with) are running in "strict" mode (a feature recently added as part of the ECMAScript 5 standard) by default or not. I will keep testing and looking for a solution.		It seems that the Asirra captcha mechanism is broken again. It might be related to an error that has started popping up on pages where a bit of javascript is broken. Said bit of javascript refers to a variable that should exist (and in the past did exist) but is, apparently, no longer being created before it is being used. I don't know if this is because Firefox and Chrome (the two browsers I've tested with) are running in "strict" mode (a feature recently added as part of the ECMAScript 5 standard) by default or not. I will keep testing and looking for a solution.