It's been a while since Wikia released their social tools <
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SocialProfile> and they became a hit
among the MediaWiki community, with many people praising the tools...not to
mention the i18n updates. UserProfile is currently translated to 21
languages <
http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/SocialProfile/UserProfile/UserProfile.i18n.php?revision=32132&view=markup>
- wow! Some of these languages are so obscure that I haven't ever heard of
them before MediaWiki...<g>

UserProfilePage.php file refers to a couple of special pages that aren't
currently included with SocialProfile:
  $give_gift = Title::makeTitle(NS_SPECIAL, "GiveGift");
  $friends_activity = Title::makeTitle(NS_SPECIAL, "UserActivity");
  $similar_fans = Title::makeTitle(NS_SPECIAL, "SimilarFans");

For the less PHP-savvy of us, the code above refers to the special pages
Special:GiveGift, Special:UserActivity and Special:SimiliarFans. It would be
really cool to have the UserGift stuff added into SocialProfile...and why
not the points system that Halopedia, for example is using.

Another issue I'd like to point out is avatars. Assuming a user uploads an
inappropriate avatar, the only way to remove that currently is to delete the
file - server-side. The web-based interface for avatar deletions,
Special:AvatarRemove would be an appropriate addition to SocialProfile
package - it just seems so logical.

And now, while we're at it...Wikia has some cool Ajax-based extensions,
namely AjaxLogin and the Poll extension - I'd like to suggest releasing them
to the official MediaWiki SVN. MediaWiki, while it's a great wiki software
(and the only one I'll use), is a bit behind the times when it comes to Ajax
features...MW has an Ajax-based search suggest (disabled by default) and
some Ajaxy features in Special:Upload by default - and that's pretty much
it. There aren't that many MediaWiki extensions that make use of Ajax
features, as far as I know. CategoryTree is one of the most notable Ajax
extensions.

I've also noticed that Wikia makes quite a heavy use of custom MediaWiki
hooks - that is, ones that Wikia's techs have added into Wikia's copy of
MediaWiki and that are not in the core software. I bet it'd make things a
lot easier for everyone if Wikia's techs would just go ahead and add these
hooks into the core software - I'd say that it's almost impossible that such
a change would be reverted. This would make upgrading Wikia's copy of
MediaWiki a bit smoother, wouldn't it? :-)

And yet another question related to extensions, Wikia and MediaWiki...well,
kinda. Whatever happened to the idea of having a public SVN for volunteer
developers? The development wiki is still up and running, but there's no
public SVN anywhere...it'd be something a lot of "code junkies" would
appreciate, I'd say.

P.S. UserProfile/UserProfilePage.js refers to Special:MiniAjaxUpload - an
extension that's not included with SocialProfile - and also hotlinks
http://images.wikia.com/common/wikiany/images/ajax-loader-white.gif - nasty!
You might want to change that to a local URL and add the image to the
SocialProfile package. And I'd like to *thank* Wikia's hard-working techs
for bringing us these fancy social tools - they really are great! If you
don't believe me...check MediaWiki.org and #mediawiki IRC channel. ;-)

Regards,
-- 
Jack Phoenix
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/User:Jack_Phoenix
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