ā T253764 Undeploy the InterwikiSorting extension from Wikipedia production
Page Menu
Phabricator
Create Task
Maniphest
T253764
Undeploy the InterwikiSorting extension from Wikipedia production
Closed, Resolved
Public
Actions
Edit Task
Edit Related Tasks...
Create Subtask
Edit Parent Tasks
Edit Subtasks
Merge Duplicates In
Close As Duplicate
Edit Related Objects...
Edit Commits
Edit Mocks
Mute Notifications
Protect as security issue
Assigned To
Ladsgroup
Authored By
Jdforrester-WMF
May 27 2020, 3:46 PM
2020-05-27 15:46:03 (UTC+0)
Tags
MediaWiki-extensions-InterwikiSorting
(Backlog)
Technical-Debt
(Unsorted)
Release-Engineering-Team (Doing)
Patch-For-Review
MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.16; 2026-02-17)
User-notice-archive
(Backlog)
Referenced Files
F72182399: image.png
Feb 19 2026, 8:32 AM
2026-02-19 08:32:50 (UTC+0)
F72182397: image.png
Feb 19 2026, 8:32 AM
2026-02-19 08:32:50 (UTC+0)
Subscribers
A_smart_kitten
Addshore
Aklapper
Base
Bugreporter
Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE
IKhitron
View All 19 Subscribers
Description
In
T252870#6169365
@Addshore
wrote:
In
T252870#6169364
@Jdforrester-WMF
wrote:
Is InterwikiSorter not needed in production anymore, then?
I don't believe so, sounds like it can be undeployed! woo!
Details
Related Changes in Gerrit:
Subject
Repo
Branch
Lines +/-
OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
mediawiki/core
wmf/1.46.0-wmf.15
+4
-2
OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
mediawiki/core
wmf/1.46.0-wmf.16
+4
-2
OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
mediawiki/core
master
+4
-2
Undeploy InterwikiSorting - V: Stop loading i18n
operations/mediawiki-config
master
+0
-1
Undeploy InterwikiSorting - IV: Drop all config
operations/mediawiki-config
master
+0
-37
Undeploy InterwikiSorting - III: Drop InterwikiSortOrders.php
operations/mediawiki-config
master
+0
-1 K
Undeploy InterwikiSorting - II: Drop loading ability
operations/mediawiki-config
master
+0
-5
Undeploy InterwikiSorting - I: Disable everywhere
operations/mediawiki-config
master
+0
-2
Stop branching the InterwikiSorting extension
mediawiki/tools/release
master
+0
-1
Allow setting prepend languages without relying on InterwikiSorting extension
mediawiki/extensions/UniversalLanguageSelector
master
+4
-1
Customize query in gerrit
Related Changes in GitLab:
Title
Reference
Author
Source Branch
Dest Branch
Stop branching InterwikiSorting
repos/releng/release!234
ladsgroup
ladsgroup-main-patch-46727
main
Customize query in GitLab
Related Objects
Search...
Task Graph
Mentions
Status
Subtype
Assigned
Task
Open
None
T106123
Extensions needing to be removed from Wikimedia wikis
Resolved
Ladsgroup
T253764
Undeploy the InterwikiSorting extension from Wikipedia production
Mentioned In
T421023: Interwikis on Russian Wikipedia should be collapsed
T4867: Interwiki lists sort in phonetic, site-defined order
T417882: Interwiki recently started sorted randomly in Monobook, old Vector and Timeless
T267332: Determine which projects WMDE Technical Wishes is responsible for
T257625: Interwiki sorting broken
Mentioned Here
T416512: Enable the user to 'pin' preferred languages (for switching language easily)
T4867: Interwiki lists sort in phonetic, site-defined order
T412819: Cleanup WMF production extensions that still reference undeployed UserMerge hook
T301787: [Design spike] Explore options for one-click language switching
T257625: Interwiki sorting broken
T252870: Add Wikidata support for awawiki
Event Timeline
There are a very large number of changes, so older changes are hidden.
Show Older Changes
Meno25
unsubscribed.
May 12 2021, 2:36 PM
2021-05-12 14:36:28 (UTC+0)
Addshore
added a comment.
Jun 2 2021, 2:48 PM
2021-06-02 14:48:01 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#7076434
@Bugreporter
wrote:
In my opinion this seems something that should be merged to MediaWiki core.
This sounds like it would pretty reasonable, but would need buy in from the
Platform Engineering
team / core owners.
WMDE-leszek
subscribed.
Jun 3 2021, 7:41 PM
2021-06-03 19:41:05 (UTC+0)
karapayneWMDE
subscribed.
Jun 7 2021, 3:55 PM
2021-06-07 15:55:42 (UTC+0)
Ladsgroup
reopened this task as
Open
Jan 16 2026, 2:23 PM
2026-01-16 14:23:46 (UTC+0)
Ladsgroup
subscribed.
Comment Actions
In the light of vector 2022 being rolled out, I would like to revisit this. I know some users still use non-compat version but the benefit of sorting in a nice way doesn't outweigh the cost of maintaining this extension in production (and translations, etc.). I'm sure these users can live with alphabetical sorting of the language code.
Pikne
added a comment.
Jan 17 2026, 10:01 AM
2026-01-17 10:01:21 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11529024
@Ladsgroup
wrote:
the benefit of sorting in a nice way doesn't outweigh the cost of maintaining this extension in production (and translations, etc.)
Is this cost high, though? There are no open bugs for this extension, and a couple of tasks that have been resolved over years seem to have involved only minor work. This extension also has only one translatable message.
Besides, current randomly ordered language links in Vector 2022 feel much like a bug (I know in theory it has got something to do with languages that user has visited but...). Hopefully sorting orders provided by this extension can be used eventually in Vector 2022, too (see
T301787#10172462
).
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Jan 17 2026, 12:35 PM
2026-01-17 12:35:21 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Many times when we want to remove code, we get the sentence that "it's not much code" and that can be true for one place or one extension but they add up because we have many places like that. Just a couple days ago I saw the exact same thing somewhere else:
T412819#11466909
so I won't repeat myself but we have 3M line of code in production (just mediawiki) and we, the devs, cannot reasonably maintain this ocean of tech debt.
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Feb 11 2026, 6:55 PM
2026-02-11 18:55:31 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Another aspect on the cost of this extension: Every time a new language is introduced, we need to add it in a giant file in mediawiki-config:
Ladsgroup
added a subscriber:
Lydia_Pintscher
Feb 11 2026, 7:58 PM
2026-02-11 19:58:17 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
@Lydia_Pintscher
Hi š do you think Wikidata team can own this extension? If not, Iā will undeploy it.
Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE
subscribed.
Feb 17 2026, 2:06 PM
2026-02-17 14:06:59 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Hi Amir, we just had a look at it would be amazing if you could undeploy it. Thank you so much.
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 2:27 PM
2026-02-17 14:27:14 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Thanks! I'll get to it ASAP.
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 2:34 PM
2026-02-17 14:34:28 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599064
restored
by Ladsgroup:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - I: Disable everywhere
gerritbot
added a project:
Patch-For-Review
Feb 17 2026, 2:34 PM
2026-02-17 14:34:29 (UTC+0)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:20 PM
2026-02-17 17:20:42 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599065
restored
by Ladsgroup:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - II: Drop loading ability
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:21 PM
2026-02-17 17:21:05 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599066
restored
by Ladsgroup:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - III: Drop InterwikiSortOrders.php
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:22 PM
2026-02-17 17:22:00 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599067
restored
by Ladsgroup:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - IV: Drop all config
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:22 PM
2026-02-17 17:22:11 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599068
restored
by Ladsgroup:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - V: Stop loading i18n
Ladsgroup
added a project:
User-notice
Feb 17 2026, 5:33 PM
2026-02-17 17:33:41 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Entry for tech news: InterwikiSorting extension has been undeployed and non-compact version of interwiki links will be ordered by their language code instead.
Edit mercilessly
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:33 PM
2026-02-17 17:33:53 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599064
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - I: Disable everywhere
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:34 PM
2026-02-17 17:34:24 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:34:23Z]
T253764
)]]
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:36 PM
2026-02-17 17:36:34 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:36:33Z]
T253764
)]] synced to the testservers (see
). Changes can now be verified there.
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:41 PM
2026-02-17 17:41:22 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:41:21Z]
T253764
)]] (duration: 06m 58s)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:46 PM
2026-02-17 17:46:11 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599065
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - II: Drop loading ability
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:46 PM
2026-02-17 17:46:44 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:46:43Z]
T253764
)]]
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:48 PM
2026-02-17 17:48:56 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:48:55Z]
T253764
)]] synced to the testservers (see
). Changes can now be verified there.
Aklapper
awarded a token.
Feb 17 2026, 5:52 PM
2026-02-17 17:52:58 (UTC+0)
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:54 PM
2026-02-17 17:54:36 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:54:35Z]
T253764
)]] (duration: 07m 52s)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:56 PM
2026-02-17 17:56:58 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599066
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - III: Drop InterwikiSortOrders.php
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:57 PM
2026-02-17 17:57:29 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:57:28Z]
T253764
)]]
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 5:59 PM
2026-02-17 17:59:40 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T17:59:39Z]
T253764
)]] synced to the testservers (see
). Changes can now be verified there.
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:04 PM
2026-02-17 18:04:40 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T18:04:39Z]
T253764
)]] (duration: 07m 10s)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:12 PM
2026-02-17 18:12:51 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599067
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - IV: Drop all config
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:13 PM
2026-02-17 18:13:24 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T18:13:23Z]
T253764
)]]
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:14 PM
2026-02-17 18:14:16 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Tomorrow I will move around the config for InterwikiSortingSortPrepend so we can get rid of the ULS b/c code.
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:15 PM
2026-02-17 18:15:34 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T18:15:34Z]
T253764
)]] synced to the testservers (see
). Changes can now be verified there.
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:21 PM
2026-02-17 18:21:21 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T18:21:20Z]
T253764
)]] (duration: 07m 57s)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:31 PM
2026-02-17 18:31:08 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #599068
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Undeploy InterwikiSorting - V: Stop loading i18n
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:31 PM
2026-02-17 18:31:40 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T18:31:39Z]
T253764
)]]
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 6:57 PM
2026-02-17 18:57:47 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T18:57:46Z]
T253764
)]] synced to the testservers (see
). Changes can now be verified there.
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 17 2026, 7:12 PM
2026-02-17 19:12:56 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-17T19:12:55Z]
T253764
)]] (duration: 41m 15s)
STei-WMF
subscribed.
Feb 18 2026, 1:11 PM
2026-02-18 13:11:26 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Hello
@Ladsgroup
, I did some reading on this extension and I'd like to know who this update is targeting. Is it the technical contributors? Or editors? Also please see if this captures the impact of this change:
"Users will no longer be able to customize the order of interwiki links in sidebars, as the InterwikiSorting extension has been un-deployed. Interwiki links will now appear in a non-compact (full) format and be sorted strictly by language code. This simplifies link presentation and ensures a consistent ordering experience across wikis."
Links:
and
In
T253764#11624273
@Ladsgroup
wrote:
Entry for tech news: InterwikiSorting extension has been undeployed and non-compact version of interwiki links will be ordered by their language code instead.
Edit mercilessly
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Feb 18 2026, 2:53 PM
2026-02-18 14:53:49 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Hi, it's a bit different. We are not forcing non-compact (full format). The difference is that for people who enabled in non-compact mode (which is not the default), the ordering will be based on language code from now on.
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 18 2026, 9:50 PM
2026-02-18 21:50:45 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1240389 had a related patch set uploaded (by Ladsgroup; author: Ladsgroup):
[mediawiki/core@master] OutputPage: Sort language links before injecting to skin
Dreamy_Jazz
awarded a token.
Feb 18 2026, 9:53 PM
2026-02-18 21:53:00 (UTC+0)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 12:02 AM
2026-02-19 00:02:09 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1240389
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@master] OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
ReleaseTaggerBot
added a project:
MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.17; 2026-02-24)
Feb 19 2026, 1:00 AM
2026-02-19 01:00:43 (UTC+0)
Rsilvola
awarded a token.
Feb 19 2026, 8:04 AM
2026-02-19 08:04:46 (UTC+0)
Repakr
subscribed.
Edited
Feb 19 2026, 8:32 AM
2026-02-19 08:32:50 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
I don't know if it has to do with this ticket, but now in themes Monobook and old Vector, the language list is sorted randomly. For example, on this page
English is below Korean (first image), but on page
it is below Hebrew at the bottom of the list, and Korean is higher up in the list (second image). This problem is also reported in ruwiki here:
Base
subscribed.
Feb 19 2026, 8:50 AM
2026-02-19 08:50:11 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Was there a community consultation about removing it? Fwiw there are tonnes of unmaintained extensions deployed that do have a lot of bugs and feature requests open, what is a reason to touch one that does not really require any maintenance at all?
Repakr
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 9:15 AM
2026-02-19 09:15:23 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11630918
@Repakr
wrote:
I don't know if it has to do with this ticket, but now in themes Monobook and old Vector, the language list is sorted randomly. For example, on this page
English is below Korean (first image), but on page
it is below Hebrew at the bottom of the list, and Korean is higher up in the list (second image). This problem is also reported in ruwiki here:
It also affects Timeless, which uses the same selector as the old Vector or Monobook.
Aklapper
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 9:34 AM
2026-02-19 09:34:05 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11630961
@Base
wrote:
what is a reason to touch one that does not really require any maintenance at all?
Because things add up. As you rightfully say, it is
not zero
maintenance.
IIRC we have about 3mio lines of code in production just related to MediaWiki. That's not sustainable.
STei-WMF
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 12:00 PM
2026-02-19 12:00:55 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
@Ladsgroup
Ok, how about this? "The InterwikiSorting extension, which enabled sorting of interwiki links, has been undeployed from Wikipedia. As a result, editors who had enabled interwiki link sorting in non-compact mode will now see links ordered by language code."
My follow up question will be what is the purpose of this change we have made? Create uniformity? Why is InterwikiSorter no longer needed?
In
T253764#11628043
@Ladsgroup
wrote:
Hi, it's a bit different. We are not forcing non-compact (full format). The difference is that for people who enabled in non-compact mode (which is not the default), the ordering will be based on language code from now on.
STei-WMF
moved this task from
To Triage
to
Announce in next Tech/News
on the
User-notice
board.
Feb 19 2026, 12:01 PM
2026-02-19 12:01:11 (UTC+0)
Repakr
mentioned this in
T417882: Interwiki recently started sorted randomly in Monobook, old Vector and Timeless
Feb 19 2026, 12:54 PM
2026-02-19 12:54:16 (UTC+0)
Mike.Khoroshun
awarded a token.
Feb 19 2026, 1:36 PM
2026-02-19 13:36:21 (UTC+0)
Johannnes89
subscribed.
Feb 19 2026, 1:43 PM
2026-02-19 13:43:43 (UTC+0)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 2:30 PM
2026-02-19 14:30:03 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1240706 had a related patch set uploaded (by Ladsgroup; author: Ladsgroup):
[mediawiki/core@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.16] OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Edited
Feb 19 2026, 2:33 PM
2026-02-19 14:33:21 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11630961
@Base
wrote:
Was there a community consultation about removing it? Fwiw there are tonnes of unmaintained extensions deployed that do have a lot of bugs and feature requests open, what is a reason to touch one that does not really require any maintenance at all?
On top of what Andre has said, who says it doesn't require maintenance at all? A simple example that Iā gave above is that every time a new language is added (which is around once a month) someone should update
InterwikiSortOrders.php
and add the language code to several arrays based on the name of language in local language and other pieces. People usually forget to do that and the new language actually end up at the bottom of the list and/or a random place.
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 2:36 PM
2026-02-19 14:36:03 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1240707 had a related patch set uploaded (by Ladsgroup; author: Ladsgroup):
[mediawiki/core@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.15] OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 2:50 PM
2026-02-19 14:50:10 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1240706
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.16] OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
gerritbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 2:52 PM
2026-02-19 14:52:47 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1240707
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.15] OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 2:53 PM
2026-02-19 14:53:21 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-19T14:53:20Z]
T253764
)]], [[gerrit:1240707|OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them (
T253764
)]]
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 2:55 PM
2026-02-19 14:55:43 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-19T14:55:42Z]
T253764
)]], [[gerrit:1240707|OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them (
T253764
)]] synced to the testservers (see
). Changes can now be verified there.
ReleaseTaggerBot
edited projects, added
MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.16; 2026-02-17)
; removed
MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.17; 2026-02-24)
Feb 19 2026, 3:00 PM
2026-02-19 15:00:34 (UTC+0)
Stashbot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 3:01 PM
2026-02-19 15:01:27 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations)
[2026-02-19T15:01:26Z]
T253764
)]], [[gerrit:1240707|OutputPage: Sort language links before storing them (
T253764
)]] (duration: 08m 06s)
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 3:11 PM
2026-02-19 15:11:00 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
The issue of random order is now fixed. It should be based on language code now.
IKhitron
subscribed.
Feb 19 2026, 3:49 PM
2026-02-19 15:49:42 (UTC+0)
Ladsgroup
closed this task as
Resolved
Feb 19 2026, 5:09 PM
2026-02-19 17:09:09 (UTC+0)
Ladsgroup
claimed this task.
A_smart_kitten
subscribed.
Feb 19 2026, 5:11 PM
2026-02-19 17:11:44 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
(I believe a patch to
may still be needed for this task)
CodeReviewBot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 5:13 PM
2026-02-19 17:13:14 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
ladsgroup opened
Stop branching InterwikiSorting
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 5:14 PM
2026-02-19 17:14:10 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11633024
@A_smart_kitten
wrote:
(I believe a patch to
may still be needed for this task)
done. Thanks for catching it.
CodeReviewBot
added a comment.
Feb 19 2026, 5:59 PM
2026-02-19 17:59:48 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
jforrester
merged
Stop branching InterwikiSorting
STei-WMF
moved this task from
Announce in next Tech/News
to
In current Tech/News draft
on the
User-notice
board.
Feb 20 2026, 6:06 PM
2026-02-20 18:06:55 (UTC+0)
Iniquity
subscribed.
Feb 23 2026, 7:31 PM
2026-02-23 19:31:22 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
One of the main reasons many refused to use the new, broken ULS was precisely the ability to sort interwikis in the order they needed and found convenient. Removing the extension without providing a viable replacement was, predictably, not the best idea.
Legoktm
subscribed.
Feb 24 2026, 4:08 AM
2026-02-24 04:08:10 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
This feels like a dissatisfying ending to a feature that's been on Wikipedias in one form or another since 2004. I was surprised to see it gone so quickly but also I forgot that I turned off compact links years ago, so maybe sorting is irrelevant to most users. I get the tech debt rationale broadly, but
T253764#11632202
doesn't feel convincing because it's just static data that seems like it should be straightforward to have auto-generated instead of manually maintained (then again, no one did that for 20+ years so...).
More broadly, when Wikidata took over managing interwiki links, this functionality was built into Wikibase and then later split out of Wikibase to simplify maintenance (and I think that was mostly true at the time). But I wonder if it had stayed in the mega Wikibase extension that would've kept it alive longer, and that would've been a better strategy to pursue.
I suppose
T4867: Interwiki lists sort in phonetic, site-defined order
should be declined now?
Addshore
added a comment.
Feb 24 2026, 7:38 AM
2026-02-24 07:38:35 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
From my vague memories it was split out of wikibase at the point in time, the cognate extension was created to manage interlanguage links on wiktionary.
As the same interwoki storing code that was part of wikibase would not run on wiktionary for the sirelinks that cognate provided.
Hence the split.
Ladsgroup
added a comment.
Feb 24 2026, 4:12 PM
2026-02-24 16:12:18 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11642138
@Iniquity
wrote:
One of the main reasons many refused to use the new, broken ULS was precisely the ability to sort interwikis in the order they needed and found convenient. Removing the extension without providing a viable replacement was, predictably, not the best idea.
But that's not the reason to keep two competing functionalities. If something is not supported in ULS. Push for the support to be added there not keeping an old system noone maintains or want to maintain.
In
T253764#11643395
@Legoktm
wrote:
This feels like a dissatisfying ending to a feature that's been on Wikipedias in one form or another since 2004. I was surprised to see it gone so quickly but also I forgot that I turned off compact links years ago, so maybe sorting is irrelevant to most users.
On top of that, the number of people who disabled compact links is quite low and it doesn't work with vector-2022 at all. So the actual number is really really low.
I get the tech debt rationale broadly, but
T253764#11632202
doesn't feel convincing because it's just static data that seems like it should be straightforward to have auto-generated instead of manually maintained (then again, no one did that for 20+ years so...).
It's not as simple, for example, the order could be based on local language name so instead of German, it'd be Deutsch. So far, easy. But what about ŁŲ§Ų±Ų³Ū?
More broadly, when Wikidata took over managing interwiki links, this functionality was built into Wikibase and then later split out of Wikibase to simplify maintenance (and I think that was mostly true at the time). But I wonder if it had stayed in the mega Wikibase extension that would've kept it alive longer, and that would've been a better strategy to pursue.
I'd also argue we should disable barely used functionalities in wikibase too but that's not my call :)
I suppose
T4867: Interwiki lists sort in phonetic, site-defined order
should be declined now?
I do it.
Ladsgroup
mentioned this in
T4867: Interwiki lists sort in phonetic, site-defined order
Feb 24 2026, 4:16 PM
2026-02-24 16:16:59 (UTC+0)
Iniquity
added a comment.
Feb 24 2026, 5:19 PM
2026-02-24 17:19:16 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11646718
@Ladsgroup
wrote:
In
T253764#11642138
@Iniquity
wrote:
One of the main reasons many refused to use the new, broken ULS was precisely the ability to sort interwikis in the order they needed and found convenient. Removing the extension without providing a viable replacement was, predictably, not the best idea.
But that's not the reason to keep two competing functionalities. If something is not supported in ULS. Push for the support to be added there not keeping an old system noone maintains or want to maintain.
Are you kidding me? You've been fixing Vector's major bugs for five years and still haven't fixed them. What new feature push are you talking about?
Johannnes89
added a comment.
Feb 24 2026, 9:30 PM
2026-02-24 21:30:04 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
In
T253764#11646718
@Ladsgroup
wrote:
In
T253764#11642138
@Iniquity
wrote:
One of the main reasons many refused to use the new, broken ULS was precisely the ability to sort interwikis in the order they needed and found convenient. Removing the extension without providing a viable replacement was, predictably, not the best idea.
But that's not the reason to keep two competing functionalities. If something is not supported in ULS. Push for the support to be added there not keeping an old system noone maintains or want to maintain.
sounds like
meta:Community Wishlist/W507
T416512: Enable the user to 'pin' preferred languages (for switching language easily)
STei-WMF
moved this task from
In current Tech/News draft
to
Already announced/Archive
on the
User-notice
board.
Feb 26 2026, 12:00 PM
2026-02-26 12:00:31 (UTC+0)
Maintenance_bot
edited projects, added
User-notice-archive
; removed
User-notice
Mar 8 2026, 12:30 PM
2026-03-08 12:30:40 (UTC+0)
Iniquity
mentioned this in
T421023: Interwikis on Russian Wikipedia should be collapsed
Mar 24 2026, 6:10 PM
2026-03-24 18:10:30 (UTC+0)
Log In to Comment
Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 unless otherwise noted; code licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 or later and other open source licenses. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Code of Conduct.
Wikimedia Foundation
Code of Conduct
Disclaimer
CC-BY-SA
GPL
Credits
US