On 10 December 2015 at 17:12, Jon Robson <[email protected]> wrote:
> So I enabled a beta feature today that is part of reading web's > quarterly goals (read more about read more here if interested [1]) > > When enabled it showed up in desktop beta features (yey) but the > JavaScript module wasn't loading... > > Investigating I discovered that BetaFeatures::isEnabled consults a > config variable called wgBetaFeaturesWhitelist > > This makes the feature return false if the feature is not in > wgBetaFeaturesWhitelist > > Apparently however you make the feature show up in the > GetBetaFeaturePreferences hook - so the whitelist doesn't actually > apply to things we show to users (which I would say would be more > important...) [2] > Hmm. That's an odd bug. I'm pretty sure it didn't used to work if it wasn't in the whitelist at all, not merely partially. Thanks for the bug report, and I see you've filed it as https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T121182. Thank you; I'll see if we can get it fixed PDQ. > The whitelist also asks when enabling to check with James Forrester and > Greg > and to note a date 6 months after the last major change. According to > these comments all the listed beta features have passed their expiry > dates. > Yeah, this is my fault, sorry. Each of them has an update from the dates lists, but I haven't updated them and clearly neither had anyone else. :-) I've done a commit to update the dates here – https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/258409 – but you're right, I've also been far too lax in letting un- and semi-developed ideas scrape along for too long; sorry. > Will they live here forever - or is it time to talk about beta features? > Beta Features was always for high-ish quality features which we wanted to give our users a taste of ahead of release, reworking, or killing them off. It is not and must not be a graveyard of discarded ambitions. The six month "deadline" was our attempt to make sure it didn't turn into that, but it requires someone (me) to actually do so, and I clearly haven't. :-( I'll get the teams of each overdue feature to respond as to whether we're killing them or improving them. J. -- James D. Forrester Lead Product Manager, Editing Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. [email protected] | @jdforrester _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
